Cruising with Illawong

Bahia Ilha Grande - June to August 2009

2009-10-04T11:09:00.000-07:00

This is a large bay approximately 60 Nm west of Rio de Janeiro with many islands, bays, nooks and crannies. Most of the cruising is done in the west end away from the hustle and bustle of the Rio suburbs and commercial ports within the bay. The west also offers lots of quiet places around the islands for anchoring as well as a somewhat better flow-thru of cleaner water. Ilha Grande itself is the largest island, right in the middle of the bay entrance, which then provides a lot of protected water for sailing, or in most instances, motoring.
On Ilha Grande,the village of Abraao provides basic grocery shopping for the whole island and most of the islanders come by boat to stock up. A ferry service runs between Abraao and Angra dos Reis, the closest large town on the mainland. It is very green on the island, which means it rains quite a bit, but also replenishes the water supply – in several places, water runs freely from catchment tanks thru pipes right onto the beach or out to a mooring buoy, which can be taken easily. Wi-fi hot spots are occasionally available on the boat if anchored in the right place, otherwise internet cafes are very expensive, as is eating out at the rudimentary restaurants. From here we went for a long hike up Pappagao (Parrot) Peak, heard howler monkeys making their loud eerie “go away” noises, but from 600 metres up the overview of the town was rather nice on a sunny day. For the first month, we made this our base, going off to other anchorages for some quiet or just a change of scenery.
From Las Palmas anchorage, we hiked across to the beautiful clean white sandy Lopez Mendes beach on the ocean side of the island for a swim where the water was nice and clean but a tad cool. One day we took lunch and hiked 3 hours to the light house at the west end of the island thru dense woodland and a number of rather large stands of bamboo. On the way we saw a snake slithering off the track just at our feet and heard howler monkeys again. Saw signs “Beware of Alligators” (which had been introduced) we never did see any and not a lot of other wildlife except a few land and sea birds and butterflies. Met up with 4 cruising boats from South Africa so one night we all went ashore for a braai (bbq).
Saco do Ceu was a very quiet little enclosed anchorage, except, as for most places, not on weekends when the locals come out to play. Good easily accessible water but not a lot of hiking and not great holding when the wind whistled down from the mountains so we didn't spend much time there.
There were just some things we could not get on the Island so eventually we sailed and motored across to the mainland and anchored at Iate Clube Angra dos Reis (ICAR), on the opposite side of the peninsular from the city – much quieter and more picturesque. Friendly club with wi-fi available, reasonably priced restaurant and snack bar and lovely hot showers, but no permanent live aboards. Situated a long way up into the bay, cut off from the sea by islands and surrounded by green mountains it can get quite windy at times but the water remains relatively flat, until the weekend when a lot of boats come roaring to and from the fuel dock located nearby.
Took the bus across to the downtown centro and wandered around all day finding a number of computer and hardware stores with lots of goodies, plus the general run of the mill clothing, food and tourist shops. In this very old established and brightly painted town many of the streets are still cobbled, with some very narrow connecting alleyways. An exceedingly large number of “scuners” (schooners) fill up the harbour to take visitors out to the islands on day trips, many of them idle during this winter period. The large modern shopping mall/marina complex was a great disappointment with a number of shops closed for renovations, no real chandlery but a very expensive small supermarket where we found pricey Canadian maple syrup.
Another bus trip took us to Bracchui, a modern complex full of condos and homes, hotels and apartment buildings with many places for rent, built along a small series of canals. Many boats tied up to the private jetties and many more in the entrance marina.
Had to also take a 15 minute, commonly crowded, bus ride to go shopping at a major supermarket. On returning with our big and heavy backpacks, hands also full of bags, we had to struggle past the cashier turnstile, but the locals were very kind in giving up seats to accommodate.
When we finally left ICAR our propellor was so dirty that we could only get 1600 rpm, doing 4 knots, but it was just such a lovely sunny calm day we battled on hoping for cleaner water till we finally arrived at the anchorage of Cedro Island and Phil went for a swim to scrape it and the log clean. Next day we continued, at a much better speed, on down to Parati.
This old town of Parati is one of the oldest town in Brazil and a national heritage site. All the buildings in the downtown historical area have been renovated and newly painted with bright coloured door and window frames. The streets are all cobbled and are slightly sunken in the middle so that when the tide is very high the seawater comes in and washes them clean, normally every two weeks. Not a lot of vehicular traffic but the cobbles are rather lumpy making walking very tiring. Very much a tourist town, so lots of souvenir shops. The town has of course spread out a lot and all of the every day activities and stores are in the newer areas. Many scuners tied up at the dock to take tourists out around the bay.
In the next long narrow bay, Parati Mirim it was much quieter, with only lovely green hills surrounding small islands, and lovely nooks and crannies in which to anchor. However, only managed to stay here for a couple of days before the weather files showed a good period for heading south. We departed Bahia Ilha Grande on August 30 after an enjoyable 2 months calm but wet stay.

Illawong in Rio De Janeiro

2009-10-03T12:46:00.000-07:00

This is a short video of our wanderings around Rio de Janeiro.

Vitoria to Rio de Janeiro

2009-06-20T04:48:00.000-07:00

We enjoyed Vitoria, what areas we were able to explore, quite pretty and clean, with lovely green and shady beach front walking paths and an absolutely beautiful, well preserved, circa 1920 theater. Time was marching on and we needed to renew visas for passports and boat. The passports were very easy to do in Vitoria, but as other international boats had experienced some difficulties we decided to sail to Rio to finalize the boat papers.

Tuesday, June 9, motoring out of the harbour against some large swells and light headwind we did not encounter any shipping. After motoring for just over 4 hours, we were able to sail slowly until the winds picked up later in the afternoon. By midnight and for all the next day, the wind came around from behind and then off the land so we were using various combinations of poled out genoa and/or mainsail, doing between 5.5 and 6.2 knots having a really pleasant sail, especially when the swell died down. Passed a lot of oil rig supply vessels, helicopters, fishing boats and nets, at various times along the way, as well as a group of 20+ fisher boats, 3-4 wide and a mile long, all towing nets – the fish just don't have a chance.

A few hours before Cape Frio ,waiting for the expected northerlies as predicted by the grib files, we were back motoring again into a 15kn southerly headwind and in the very early hours of Thursday morning, overcast and wet, with a cold wind curling around the Cape to meet us, we doubled the cape in a pincer maneuver dodging 3 other boats much bigger than us. The further away from the Cape we went, the better the weather – wind and waves died down and even tho we motored the 60+ Nm to Rio, the wind was light, flat sea, sunshine and well away from the shipping lanes. Could see Rio in the smog as we passed thru the bay entrance altho by then, clouds were pretty low and by 17.00 we anchored off the Clube Naval Charitas in Niteroi, on the east side of the Bay.

At the Clube we met an english speaking live-a-board who helped and advised us a lot enabling us, on Friday morning, to go directly to the correct office of the authorities, in Niteroi, and within a half hour (office opened at 10 am), our boat papers had been extended. What a relief, and in record time our lady friend said. That meant we were then free to go exploring.

Walked to the terminal and took the fast Cat ferry over the Bay to downtown Rio de Janeiro and wandered around in the rain. Some of the older buildings are beautiful, standing side by side with the new architecture it makes for a really fascinating mix. At some point there must have been a height restriction as on one of the main roads for a couple of blocks, the buildings are all the same, then the modern construction design develops and higher up they go. With the reputation of Rio, we had not taken the camera, but as we did not perceive any threat at all, we went back on Saturday, a better day for photos as it had stopped raining. Weekends the fast ferry does not run so took the bus around to Niteroi and caught the slower one, and just outside the terminal we came across an extensive and intriguing antique market. By the time we got uptown, stopping along the way to take photos, all the shops were shut and the center was being rapidly vacated on such a lovely afternoon. A lot of the glass windows and building shapes made for some really unusual pictures. Sunday, a really clear day to look across the bay at downtown Rio and surrounding hills, was spent in Niteroi shopping as we had planned on sailing down to Isla Grande bay. Bought some limao (lime) flavoured biscuits to nibble on but to our horror, the biscuits themselves are a bilious green - such are the joys of shopping in unfamiliar territory.

It is now Tuesday 16 June and we have crossed the bay and anchored at the foot of Pao Acucar (Sugarloaf) hill, going to visit Rio again with the excuse of waiting for favourable winds (which should be in a day or three). It is possible to walk to downtown Rio from here, along another lovely clean, green foreshore with paths, but it is a long way alternatively it is easy to get a bus around the bay which we did on Thursday and walked back.

We have really enjoyed Rio and have not had any problems though we get around with no wallets or hand bags or jewellery and have money in pouches under cloths and a small backpack. No inkling of any pickpockets or worse but have also not visited the major tourist sites as generally we are not that interested in these places.

New Photos from Africa added to Web Album

2009-06-06T08:01:00.000-07:00

2009 Ilheus to Vitoria, Brazil

2009-06-06T07:24:00.000-07:00

Had a really lovely quiet time in Ilheus. A lot of walking around town, although we were not very far from the downtown area, shops, supermarket and internet were all close by. We found an open air market but perhaps the economic downturn has affected this area of Brazil also as on the days we visited, the stalls were only half used, however it was still fun to shop. The waterfront area was very nice with a lot of greenery along the footpaths and nice white beaches. A number of people usually out for exercise and always 1 or 2 games of soccer on the go. Lots of schools and hospitals or clinics, but only a few high rise apartment buildings visible from the bay. Interesting times visiting cruising boats from 5 different European countries and a South African.

Early on May 7 we were finally ready to leave Ilheus. Picked a nice calm weather window using the GRIB files and had a lovely motor sail until the wind came round far enough for us to sail for a while. By midnight with full moon, we were motor sailing again and at 7 o’clock anchored in Cabralia Bay as the wind was picking up from the south and building waves against a contrary current. Spent the rest of that day and the next two, as it rained occasionally, holed up having hot lime toddies and lots of sleep to try and ward off a threatening flu. Did get to clean the log which was jammed by growth.

On May 11, we made an early start to take advantage of the offshore breeze and slight helping current, both of which became adverse during late morning, so again reverted to motor sailing till we reached the next anchorage behind a fringing reef at Cumuruxatiba at 16.30. Altho we had a comfortable night there there did not look to be any protection at all from the sea, the reef being underwater at all times, so we left again early next morning. Motor sailed all day, later on weaving between the reefs and islets of the Abrolhos archipelago till we could enter the dredged channel into Caravelas to anchor behind a protecting outer island. Followed in the wake of a tug pushing a barge for transporting wood to be used in pulp manufacture. The logging trucks were lined up all day and night feeding the barge, and as soon as it was full, the tug would be there to take it away, leaving another empty one in its place. A continual stream. As the GRIB files showed better sailing winds for the next day, we stayed another day here. Altho we had motored a lot of the way to this point, we were very glad to be passed the Belmont Point/Abrolhos islands region where currents are strong and winds variable – not an easy sailing passage as other yachts this year found out returning to Ilheus the worse for wear and as we discovered in 2003 when we sailed this way without a motor taking 4 days to do 100nm south and only did 10nm south on 2 of those days.

May 14 we motor sailed for the first 6 hours until the winds came around to the NE and we could finally turn off the motor. North sector winds continued all night and next day so had a really great fast rolly romping time with current, sometimes up to 2 knots, helping us arrive off Vitoria just on dusk. It was still blowing hard so we had to slow down at harbour entrance to allow huge freighter, with all its little attending tugs, to enter. Heading towards the yacht club, 2 tugs crossed our path, one turning around 180° just off our bow, presumably recalled to work and we also had to keep a look out for the Pilot boat which uses the yacht club for a Pilot transfer station – this is a very busy port.

Have been here nearly 3 weeks, mostly taking it easy in order to get over this persistent flu. The yacht club here has been nice to stay at, available WIFI, hot showers friendly staff made the stay pleasant but the cost has added up from staying too long, still a really pretty place even tho it has high rise apartment buildings wall to wall. Very pleasant water front walking paths next to white beaches and palm trees right down to the water. Have met some very nice locals who have helped some of the cruising boats with official clearance as one department is very difficult to deal with. It was truly amazing to watch a huge car carrier being guided up the quite narrow river, then turned completely around and maneuvered into its dock.

Vitoria is quite up market from previous places visited but one thing we have found is that anything related to entertainment gets expensive very quickly and an enjoyable lunch out with local friends and other yachties ended up costing $US25/plate for a local traditional dish and a couple of beers. The beers are cheap and food shopping is quite reasonable and the basic wage here is $US250/month so am not sure why things are priced the way they are.

Well we are cleared out of Vitoria for Rio Grande de Sul, last port south in Brazil and we leave Monday to Rio de Janeiro to renew our visa, could do it here but that same difficult department gets in the way so we must get to Rio where hopefully the officials will be ok to deal with.

Brazil – Natal to Ilheus (S14°47')

2009-04-24T07:36:00.001-07:00

N'ere a complaint. What a lovely sail/coast/drift. And it's getting
much cooler – wonderful.

But first Natal. Of course, not speaking Portuguese is a great
detriment here and even with the help of a map and instructions from
the yacht club and directions from a fellow yachtie, it still took 2
days to check in with the officials. However, that done, we were free
to go about our other business of finding stores, food (our tongues
were hanging out for bread, fresh fruit and veg), bank (that actually
accepted foreign cards) and internet cafe. Along the way we also
found a bus to take us way across town to the BIG hypermarkets. Quite
a bit cheaper shopping here than in Trini. At the yacht club we
managed to easily replace some of the diesel. Foreign vessels,
anchored in the river, are allowed 3 free days access to the yacht
club then it becomes a bit expensive just for a dinghy dock and a nice
clean cold shower.

Winds were against us on Friday night, so we left at low tide on
Saturday morning. Had fairly light winds, a few rain squalls which
brought wind, closed hauled a lot of the time, tacked a couple of
times but for the most part it was nice, slow, calm sailing, even flat
enough to stop for a swim at one point.

Stopped for 2 days at Cururipe, a quaint little fishing village behind
a long reef. Had to get in really close for protection from the swell
and had just less than a meter under the keel at low tide but still
pretty rolly. Nice long beach for a walk at sunup, restaurant right
on the beach front, some very friendly helpful hardworking fishermen,
but not much else.

Then for the next 3 and a bit days we again coasted along with varying
winds, seas mostly calm and only a few hard rain squalls. Since
leaving Natal we had been favoured with a current lift, sometimes up
to 1.3knots, and this only dissipated when we went off the continental
shelf. We had decided after we left Cururipe to stop at Ilheus as we
needed to go shopping for fresh stuff and in actual fact whether we
wanted to or not we got wind shifts that were making sure we actually
did go to Ilheus or direct out to sea, but then as we approached the
harbour the frequency of the rain squalls increases and the wind
finally settled in from the south and stayed there and the current
turned against us so after a couple of futile tacks we finally had to
motor into Ilheus harbour from abut 5 Nm out, once inside it was very
calm and protected but totally open to the north so when the wind
changes we will have to leave. This is a very small commercial
harbour with plenty of room for anchoring. Pretty little town, green,
hilly and only a couple of high rise buildings. The 'yacht club' is
actually just a restaurant with a swimming pool and we have free
access to the floating dock, showers and water - guess where we are
staying for a while - even a supermarket within easy walking distance
as well as open air market and internet.

Well we have been lucky as the southerly stayed for 12 days giving a
nice break, meeting German and Sardinian yachts and having a nice
social time as well as relaxing watching movies and going for walks
but everyone but us has left and the wind is changing so time to get
organized and drift further south.

Trinidad to Natal, Brazil, Trip in summary

2009-04-02T06:34:00.001-07:00

Trinidad to Natal, Brazil, Trip in summary

The trip into HELL!!!!! We previously complained about our sail from
Christmas Island to Perth in 1998, can't say we would rather do that
again, but Julia thinks that this trip was worse. At least on that
trip we only had ocean and weather to contend with and no lee shore.
So here, will only give the, um, "more interesting" details.

When it is time for Phil to leave, it is time – so we left on a FRIDAY
(March 6) with our next planned stop Natal, Brazil 1900Nm away. Some
may say that is where our troubles began, but we are not suspicious in
that way (we have a green boat after all). We had pushed hard to be
ready as the weather files looked really good for the first few days
giving us N to NE winds from a gale passing thru the northern
Caribbean, after that you can't do much about it anyway. The new(ish)
Yanmar engine continues to amaze us, taking us out thru tide against
wind whirlpools very easily. For the first day we were able to use
the new roller furling genoa but after that, it was mostly, storm jib,
staysail and 2 reefs in main, with sometimes the working jib. Close
hauled at all times and OFTEN using the motor to get a better heading
closer to the wind. Experienced the normal tropical rain squalls,
occasionally bringing more wind than liked or direction change and
often leaving seas very lumpy. Also fighting adverse current flow up
to 2 knots causing us to be sailing 30deg off the course on the
compass, always towards to coast we were trying to avoid.

Thru all that, we did fairly well in that we made a lot of easting and
were just past the mouth of the Amazon and south of the equator and
3/4 of our way to Natal before we finally headed in to cross the
continental shelf this happening right on the Equinox and this time we
really did get a lot stronger and much worse tropical sailing weather
with very strong rain squalls lashing us continually for 48hours. We
had read that at times there is a counter current closer in to the
coast so we went looking for it. Ha! At least the waves were not so
big, and perhaps there was a little less current at times, but on that
first afternoon we really wondered what the heck we were doing there
and with less room to motor-sail we did a lot of just pounding into
the waves with the engine working hard. Also, we then had to contend
with oil rigs, fisher boats and felucas which are small lanteen
rigged boats, with a box to sit on from which they fish and are very
well sailed (wouldn't catch us on one).

So after two and a half weeks and totally exhausted, we finally
decided to stop in at Forteleza. Another mistake??? certainly didn't
turn out to be much of a rest. We didn't go into the Marine Park
marina immediately but anchored just outside and with their OK for
that day used their dock for the dinghy so we could go ashore to
officially check in. The next morning because we had not left at
sunrise we were denied access totally even though we planned to move
into the marina. This meant we had to go to the Fortaleza Yacht Club
anchorage which is not a secure area from crime and where we were
forbidden access to yacht club docks and facilities because we were
not members. The government officials were very nice and helpful but
because of all the non accessibility, it took 3 days clearing in and
out at the same time. Meanwhile, someone had to be on the boat at all
times, as well as awake and on patrol all night. Julia tried a surf
landing to put Phil ashore, not so bad in the low surf morning, but in
the afternoon, he got a ride back with one of the local boat taxi's
who made a better job of keeping his pants dry. Glad to be out of
that place, Totally. Arrived Monday morning and were gone by Thursday
evening.

Left with the motor roaring and kept it going for the next 2 days. At
one point we anchored for a few hours off the coast waiting for the
wind to calm down a little. Soon after we were underway again at
sunset we were passing yet more fisher boats and one of them started
getting a bit too close. Dark, not knowing what to think, we just put
on more revs and out distanced him (again – great engine) but he
followed for a long time.

Sure seemed to take forever to get to THE corner but when we arrived
it was calm seas and no wind – wonderful. Finally being able to head
south instead of east, we still had to motor but at least it was a
much more relaxed time. It seemed that rain obscured Natal for the
last 10 miles or so and we again, wondered what we getting into,
however that eventually cleared and it was nice, sunny and calm to
enter into the harbour under this magnificent new humongous bridge.
All we had to contend with was the full ebb of the river (good engine)
and once inside, we spotted yachts anchored just off the channel in
front of the yacht club.

Illawong performed marvelously sailing at 45-50deg off the wind and
doing 100nm+ day runs for days on end this time on the port tack the
whole way. The crew really decided that this IS the last time we go
upwind for such long hauls it really is not nice but sometimes you
gotta do what you gotta do. So in 3 weeks sailing, 2160Nm, we ran the
Yanmar for 96 hours to Fortaleza and 57hrs to Natal averaging 2.2L/hr
which is only slightly more than we used with the old smaller engine.

Again we came to realize just how big Brazil is and are very happy
that the Brazilian Consulate in Port-Of-Spain gave us a 5 year visa
with 90 days to arrive, it made arrival very easy without any extra
deadlines and allows us to return as we wish but still limited to 180
days in any one year. So here we are, once again on the east coast of
South America, looking forward to some nice leisurely sailing down the
coast, calling in frequently to little out of the way spots but moving
on till we can find some cooler places for longer stops. Looking
forward to Rio de Janeiro and the islands around there in a month or
so.

Please visit http://yacht-illawong.blogspot.com/ for our web page

Arrived In Brazil

2009-03-25T23:08:00.000-07:00

Well we finally arrived in Brazil on 23 March at 0900 hrs stopping in Fortaleza as the weather was so crappy and we were so tired we decided to stop and enter and then carry on after things improved. Did 1800Nm and motored for 100hrs running continuously from Saturday night till arrival Monday morning into 15 to 20 kn winds. Fortaleza has 2.5million people @ 6,818 per sq Km and not prosporous with township just out of city larger that Joburg ZA and poor sections around the port of course. Alot of crime here

Since our last email we had much more difficult winds to deal with to stay off shore but managed to average a heading for Fortaleza, making the east most point and Natal was not an option as direct into the wind with a hell of a lot of motoring to achieve this point in rough conditions and we are not a ship, go much better if we can motor-sail and we can motor-sail much closer to the wind than we can sail especially if the seas are up a bit.

Of course ended up crossing onto the continental shelf around the 21 March (Equinox weather is often much worse) so got really strong rain squalls and continuous stronger winds which we had to motor-sail into 24hrs per day to make headway doing around 4Kn towards FTLEZA. The main benefit was a wind shift allowing us to more easily make FTLEZA. So after continuous overcas,t wind, rain and squalls that got worse during afternoon to early morning then eased somewhat during the rest of the day we thought we were happy to arrive.

Anchored off hotel at recommended safe anchorage but told we could not anchor there but agreed to leave next morning so we could complete official check in with immigration, customs etc. After not finishing check in on monday we asked to enter the marina, expensive and have to use own anchor to tie back to pontoon with uncomfortable surge all the time not with standing, it is more secure from crime but because we had not left first thing that morning we were told not welcome in marina and must go to IATE CLUB Fortaleza anchorage off the town in NO uncertain terms, threatening to tow Illawong out of harbour if we stayed. Marine Park Hotels Management has to be the most unfriendly we have ever come across. Moved to Iate Club and OK to anchor but told we were not welcome to use the club as not members nor for access to shore and since anchored in amoungst fishing vessels security is a major concern, in the past many yachts broken into, so it is 0300 in the morning and I am on watch midnight to dawn. The good part is that it has saved us a bit of money and this year that will be good, as long as we repel boarders so to speak, and the officials have been very nice and easy to deal with but everything must be correctly dotted etc and in general people have been very helpful in communicating with little in common between Portugeuses and English.

We leave later today the 26 to head towards Natal and hopefully the calmer conditions we have been having with hold, they are prediced to, we will see.

Heading for Brazil

2009-03-11T03:56:00.000-07:00

With a weather forecast predicting northerly winds for the next week due to a gale in the northern Carribbean and after a hectic few days finalising the important jobs that could not wait till Brazil we cleared with officials, had a last visit with our good friends Marguarite and Alain on Pictoris, final trip to internet cafe and shopping to spend all the money we had left and did a final cleaning up on Illawong to make ship shape for sea we departed Chaguaramas, Trinidad at 1440hrs Friday the 6 March and motored out thru Boca de Mono into the Atlantic again, not sure how our trip south east would pan out.

We are having a good trip so far, motored for about 12 hours till we cleared the north end of Trinidad and the wind veered around to the north and we could start sailing. Great having a bigger motor and being able to plow thru seas and chop and keep going at 4-5kns especially as we left the passage from Chaguaramas anchorage to the ocean as the usual crappy seas around the headlands. Have been sailing close hauled since then and from saturday afternoon thru monday morning it was pretty uncomfortable with 15 - 20kn winds but Illawong moved along at 6kns thru most of it and now with a more constant 15kn N, even though we are hard on the wind and only have a storm jib, staysail and 2 reefs in the main we have been averaging 120nm per day. The wind has dropped this morning to around 10-12kns NE and the swell is down alot so it is more comfortable so will have to put the jib up in place of the storm sail to get our speed up a bit.

The current certainly pushes us in towards the coast but so far the wind has been northerly enough and we have sailed a good course away from land and have given ourselves some breathing space to hopefully make the eastern point of Brazil and enter in Natal. We will have to see what happens when the wind shifts to the ENE which is predicted to happen today.

We are fine, Illawongs her usual well performing self and we are all enjoying being out away from land and out of Trinidad.

Current position 0700 11 Mar N 09° 36' W53° 16'

2008-11-28T12:33:00.000-08:00

YEAR TWELVE/THIRTEEN - ILLAWONG CHRONICLE
SOUTH GEORGIA EXPEDITION - Nov 2005 to March 2006

See South Georgia Slide Show in PHOTO ALBUMS

After being in the Ushuaia area for so long, we gratefully set sail (motor rather) on a beautiful sunny, calm October 5, 2005, first stop just 37 Nm away, a nice easy run to a very protected anchorage, a great start to the most incredible adventure. German friends accompanied us in their boat and we had a very nice 10 days, visiting and hiking with them, BBQ's on the beach, as well as getting the boat chores finished and 6 months worth of stores and 800L of diesel stowed and secured. Another kind friend rode his motorbike, a very cold and snowy 100 km round trip, to bring us some needed parts and have lunch. Saw 20 Andean condors gliding above the island just behind us one day.
Another calm sunny morning and we were headed east out of the Beagle Channel along the bottom of Tierra del Fuego to Aguirre Bay where we anchored that night. Next day, on leaving the Bay, we looked behind to see another boat, our very good French friends, catching us. A relatively calm crossing of the Straits of Le Maire, catching the tide nicely and being able to take many good photos of sea birds along the way. Our friends spent 2 days in Puerto Hopner on Staten Island with us, before leaving for the Falklands. We moved down to the east end of the island to Puerto Cook, for another 2 days waiting for good weather. Saw our first solitary King penguin and had a wonderful BBQ on shore, NO not the King, just our last leg of lamb.
October 25, finally left Staten Island, on our way to South Georgia. Fairly slow and lumpy to start with around the top of the Burwood bank. At the east end of this bank, just on dusk, we saw our first 3 icebergs, big, bulky and very white, within a 6 Nm radius, on their long north-easterly journey out of the Weddell sea in Antarctica - managed to sail between them, but we put the radar on every night thereafter to keep a better watch out for more. Strong west to north-west winds set in from behind and we had some really fast sailing for 3 days straight, clocking 130,140 &150Nm consecutively. Along the way we saw Wandering, Black-browed and Grey-headed albatross; Giant, Pintado and White-chinned petrels, Wilson's storm petrels; Antarctic fulmars and cormorants and probably half a dozen other smaller birds that we haven't identified yet. Oh thank goodness for digital cameras. Sometimes so fascinated with the birds that the boat had to sail herself. On reaching South Georgia, it was still windy with lumpy seas, but now we also had fog to deal with and we spent all afternoon manoeuvring around our second group of icebergs, one really big blue slab grounded in the shallower water, and into Coal Harbour, what we thought would be a good safe anchorage from the strong northerly winds expected. Electronic charts are very good and we would not be without them but great care must be taken if they are not consistent with WGS 84 and each scale must be checked. Moving from a large area chart to small area detailed chart we found ourselves navigating up the wrong side of a headland into the wrong bay. Having sorted that out we continued on to the correct place, very thankful to get the anchor down and set in a calm spot. 990 Nm in 8 days and 4 hours from Staten island. Not bad for Illawong, she still knows how to sail and very happy to be out there, averaging 123 Nm per day.
The first night we had a celebratory dinner and slept calmly for 12 hours. The first day, however, was not so restful. Before we had even finished breakfast we had to drop a second anchor and in the rain after lunch, set up 2 more ready on deck. The wind gusts were so strong the sea surface was being whipped up to 15 metres high and Illawong had her side decks under water on occasions. After experiencing 60Kn winds in Ushuaia we estimate these to be around 70Kn. Welcome to South Georgia. Insight number one, look at the topography of the land before deciding if an anchorage will be sheltered or not - we, obviously, even after 13 years, are still learning. But while the actual gale blew from the NW, the rachas came from the NE off of Snow Peak so maybe we were excused this first time here in SG. So there we sat for 2 days, although the second was somewhat calmer, thankfully not dragging our anchors, huddled inside around the heater, while giant petrels danced on and off the water at their leisure and fur seals cavorted all around, snorting at us. Unbeknownst to us, there were Wandering albatross nesting on the surrounding hills, not that we could have gone looking, but our activities in the next anchorage may have been quite different. Just cannot learn enough beforehand of the places to visit.
When the wind finally died down it also turned towards to the south-west which meant we had to leave this anchorage and find another. Out past the huge blue slab iceberg again, this time much closer as we squeezed between it and the coast and thru Bird Passage, quite narrow with strong current, into Elsehul Cove on the north side of the island, where we spent the next 5 days waiting for nice weather. A charter yacht from Ushuaia came in and invited us on board for dinner which was nice. We did go ashore on one day amid the huge elephant seals (ellies), many, many fur seals (furries), King and Gentoo penguins and many giant petrels, also looked at grey-headed and black-browed albatross on their nests, but as we were not yet legally entered into the country, we did not wish to stay long. This was our first experience with male Fur Seals weighting in at 150Kg and loaded with a heck of a lot of aggression so we were very wary of them. Later in January we found out what it was really like and realised what wimps we had been, at least in Nov you could find sections of empty beach to land in the dinghy. On the beach opposite our anchorage, we came across a dead ellie with another big male lying on top guarding against the scavenging horde of giant petrels until finally, giving in to the inevitable, he lumbered off up the beach. In hindsight, our days here were a bit wasted as in November, you have to make the most of whatever weather you are having and rug up warmer. And we could have seen Wandering Albatross.
The next good day we motor-sail down to Right Whale Bay, anchored overnight and the next morning, caught up with another charter yacht we knew then cruised past the huge King penguin colony in the bay and continued on down island to Prince Olaf harbour, anchoring next to yet another charter yacht from Ushuaia. Stayed here for 6 days, again waiting for good weather, until finally reaching King Edward Point on November 16, to check in and get a long spiel on what and what not to do, where we could and could not go and for how long, how far away from the animals to stay and for how long we could view them, etc. etc. Now we were legal. Still the people there were very pleasant and helpful. Filled up with nice, fresh, clean, pure water and moved off the dock to anchor on the other side of the same bay at Grytviken, the only whaling station permitted for wandering around, with a museum crammed full of all aspects of the seal and whaling history, as well as the Shackleton story, fishing and wildlife specimens and information. Really well done and very interesting. East Cumberland Bay seems to have about the mildest weather of the whole island and so we were able to see Mount Paget, the tallest at 2934m, also Mount Sugartop overlooking Grytviken.
South Georgia was first sighted in 1675 by the British but was not claimed until 1775 by Captain Cook. In 1786 the fur seal trade began and continued until 1909. In 1904 Larsen established a whaling station at Grytviken beginning the whaling era which lasted until 1965. Since then it has been of scientific interest except for the short 22 day period in 1982 when it was occupied by the Argentinians. Temperatures can range from -19C to +24C although the annual range of mean monthly temperatures is only about +7C with over 1 metre of snow accumulating at sea level through the winter but rain is more prevalent. We certainly had some beautifully sunny warm days but also snow, rain and hail at various times and plenty of wind.
Decided to head back to Prince Olaf WS and Prion Island where you must book time to see the Wandering Albatross, 4 hours only and 1 visit per day, having to fit in between cruise ships and charter yachts. However, going north again, we only got halfway there before the prevailing wind and current got too strong, forcing us to stop at Leith Harbour. Instead, had a good look all thru the whaling station there, very interesting as it has not been sanitized like Grytviken. It was very sad to see all the whale bones strewn all along the beach or sticking our of the ground in front of the station where they had been used for landfill. By law, they eventually had to come up with a way to utilise all parts of the whale even if some was only for pet food or fertilizer. Went for a really nice hike across to Stromness whaling station, a lot more tidy but also very interesting, and saw where Shackleton ended his epic journey when he and five companions came by boat from Elephant Island in the Antarctic, in 1916.
There is quite a lot of reindeer in this area and, for us, it was nice to see but because there are no predators, their numbers are growing rapidly now and becoming a source of concern. They are really confined to the areas around the whaling stations, being restricted by the surrounding glaciers which they cannot cross. We saw new borns when we first arrived, and later on, the big stags rubbing their magnificent antlers against rusty iron posts in order to be rid of the shedding fur which originally coats them. Unfortunately, some of these antlers also get caught in discarded wire hanging around the stations and the stags are unable to free themselves. There is also a fairly large colony of Gentoo penguins at Leith, and at Stromness, Gentoos were travelling way, way inland so presume another colony there but we did not investigate. Came across our first baby furrie not a day old, renamed a grrrie because of the noise they make.
Having missed this chance at Prion, we went back south down to Cobblers Cove and spent many, many hours ashore, watching the Gentoo colony, penguins coming and going to the beach, courting while making nests, mating, or sitting on eggs. These penguins are very adept at filching material with their beak from other nests and bringing it back to their own, where the two partners then bow to each other. They are very gentle creatures and show great affection to their partners and chicks. Hiked across the pass to the north shore, to a big Macaroni penguin colony. Their colonies seem to always have a very exposed landing area that in rough weather can be very dramatic, but the penguins apparently have sufficient blubber to cushion the pounding on the rocks they sometimes get as we did not see any injured from some very rough landings. They lay 2 eggs but within days push the first smaller egg out of the nest and only incubate one egg. Needless to say that the ever present scavenging Skuas and Sheathbills feed pretty well. Also nesting around this area were light-mantled Sooty albatross, Giant Northern and Giant Southern petrels, White-chinned petrels, Antarctic terns and Kelp gulls. Reindeer in this area too and many horns scattered about the place. This very protected cove was absolutely full of wildlife attracting an abundance of Skuas, some Sheathbills, and us coming back many times to watch the progress throughout the season. Had the added advantage of great hiking with fantastic views of the area as well.
The next place, Ocean Harbour, was no disappointment either, again, great hiking to see the same abundance of wildlife with the addition of many, Blue-eyed Shags nesting on the 3 masted wreck there. This is where we were able to get closer to a late baby ellie, edge our way around big, daddy, trumpet-nose ellies, see a baby furrie being born, see our first Giant petrel chick and first Gentoo chicks. The Gentoos have 2 eggs and mostly 2 chicks. The Skuas work together, one in front distracting the sitting penguin while the other comes in from behind to try and steal the egg or chick. We found both penguin parents very gentle with the chicks, even soon after birth, patiently guiding their still wobbling heads up into their own mouths to be fed. When it becomes too hot in the nest the parent stands up, keeping the egg or chick in the shade, regulating the temperature. They forage for food within a few kilometres of the colony and can dive for 2-3 minutes reaching depths of 100 metres when looking for fish. Here again we returned many times to watch progress of all the little new borns.
Mid-December we returned to Grytviken as we were expecting Canadian friends to arrive on one of the cruiseliners, leaving their yacht in Ushuaia. They were certainly doing it the easy way but not able to see as many places or stay long in any one place, however, they were being well fed and pampered and enjoying the voyage. They brought us a replacement camera lens, picked up in the Falklands, which Garth (Phil's brother) had kindly sent from USA. Cameras are an essential in wildlife areas. Had the afternoon with our friends and that night, 22nd, together with most of the other cruiseliner passengers, sang Christmas carols in the old church, built in 1913 but since renovated and nicely decorated for Christmas.
We were expecting our friends on Theleme at the beginning of January so decided to try once again for Prion Island and the Wandering albatross and then go further north back to Elsehul to wait for them and finally visit the albatross there. First, from Grytviken we went to Prince Olaf taking all day and motor sailing hard on the wind but managed to arrive this time and before the sunset. Christmas day was alternating sunny and snowy periods so stayed on board and had a lovely brunch of pancakes, ham, eggs, tomato and bubble & squeak (cabbage and mash potatoes). Dinner was baked lamb leg, veggies and wine, apple crumble and chocolate cake - even in the wild we eat well. We did not lie, Dion who was the last person born on the island to French adventurers runs a charter yacht and he visited us in Cobblers Cove and arrived carrying a frozen leg of lamb for us. On good days we went ashore and poked around the whaling station or watched the wildlife of ellies, furries, skuas, petrels, terns and shags. One percent of the furrie population is white, not albino, here we saw 3 small pups and throughout the island, even tho there was quite a number of pups, we only saw 2 medium and 1 fully grown animal. Stayed there till January 2 when we left early for Prion with very little wind, waves or current - Phil certainly picked the right day to book. Counted 20 Wandering albatross sitting on nests but doing very little else. One chick from last year still moulting from the white downy fur to almost blue/black feathers. Even in the drizzle with an umbrella up protecting the cameras we stayed as long as we could - these really are such calm and majestic birds. When adults return from the sea they must land in an open area, sometimes a fair distance away, and then waddle back to the nest, with head held very low to the ground and swaying from side to side, stopping every so often to put head up and look around for danger, or where the path leads. They need the same open ground for takeoff. Also on Prion we heard more than saw the little indigenous Pipit, a song bird. Late in the day we headed for Elsehul with tail winds helping us along. By the time we arrived it was getting dark, 10.30 at night, and the clouds, although spectacular, were flowing like a waterfall down the cliffs at the entrance and pouring out of where we wanted to go into, making us very nervous indeed. And of course it was windy but we managed to do 3 knots into the bay, where there seemed to be less wind, and anchored safely. Theleme came in during the night and the next day, being grey and overcast we spent catching up and having another baked dinner in celebration of their arrival and a late New Year. January 4 was a beautiful sunny mild calm day so we all went scrambling past the multitude of furries for, by this time, the adult numbers had tripled since we were there last and spread out dramatically throughout the now trampled tussock. Undine Harbour, across the small isthmus, was just abounding with furries on the beach, in the tussock and up the river courses, giant petrels in the sea and penguins further inland. On top of the hills between Undine and Coal harbours were the Wandering albatross. Here we counted 14 nests and one late chick from last year still with its downy fur. Had a gorgeous day with the sun out, the beautiful scenery all around, snow capped mountains and the abundance of wildlife, and good company. Theleme left next day but we wanted to revisit the albatross and sat a further 5 days before we could do so, even then it drizzled in the afternoon, but we did see some of the courtship display with wings stretched out to 3.5 metres and chest puffed out, that these birds are famous for, and which made the waiting worthwhile. Some nesting birds are over 40 years old, mating for life they only breed every 2 years, females starting when aged 8-10 years after a 2-3 year courtship period. They have been recorded to fly up to 8 thousand of miles to feed off the coast of Brazil and the Rio Platte near Uruguay. The light-mantled Sooty Albatross also only breed every 2 years and although we saw a few birds doing their co-ordinated courtship flying together, we did not see any nests, perhaps also because they are usually in very precarious places. The same breeding cycle for the grey-headed albatross and we did manage to see some nests and chicks in the north of the island.
Heading south again was easy with strong tail winds and current helping us along to Husvik Whaling Station in Stromness Bay. After having a good look around the station we hiked along the beach to the Gentoo colony and found a very small King colony there as well. Had a very dirty time pulling a reindeer fawn from the bog and setting it back on its feet, all the while hoping that the rest of the herd would stick around and come back and claim it. Continued on up Olsen valley, more like a wide open alpine meadow, right to where it ended at a glacier carved lake. Another glacier, the Drygalski, had cut at right angles to it, leaving its moraine to dam up the water. Although we climbed up the end cliffs we never did see that glacier, only pieces of it floating down river. Three or four other glaciers though could be seen from our vantage point. We had spent so much time at the beginning of the hike that by the time we returned it was 11.30pm and dark - next time we plan better! After another long hike past the reservoir for the Station, ended up having to clamber up a very steep incline to look into the next valley and Fortuna glacier and could see a number of other massive glaciers feeding into that valley. Of course, sliding down the snow patches on the way back was much easier. One night in Husvik after a particularly warm afternoon, we saw lenticular clouds but were very astonished to see lightning as well. It was all further south of us and we were not affected by it but next morning when we left the seas were very lumpy.
Visited Cobblers Cove and Ocean Harbour again. Ocean Harbour was where we had trouble retrieving our delta anchor when the chain became entangled under something big and heavy on the bottom. After hours of pulling and tugging, which only broke the rollers on the bowsprit, we eventually had to buoy the boat-end of the chain and re-anchor. Then we tried to set our bugel anchor. Found that it didn't really like dealing with that much kelp so after a couple of attempts gave up and set the CQR first time. By then it was about 11.30 pm and getting quite dark and we were cold, tired and very hungry indeed. Next morning we picked up the anchor itself using the buoy we always put on for just this type of occasion. Once the anchor was on board, the chain securely attached, we reversed full throttle (for us more power) and after a couple of tries, managed to haul the chain, grumbling and scraping from under the obstacle, taking all the galvanizing off the chain in the process. Just in time we noticed the buoy on the other end going under water but managed to retrieve it, via the dinghy, only by cutting it free from the rope attachment. At least we had retreived the anchor, all the chain, both buoys and most of the rope. Ocean Harbour was also where we had our second big blow, this time the extremely warm weather, +29C in the cockpit, creating lenticular clouds and the wind causing them did get us, with Eliot, another boat we know from Ushuaia area, in front of us trying to set a big danforth anchor (which didn't like all that kelp either), until they changed to a delta anchor and dug in straight away. They had just fitted a big engine so were having fun in all the kafuffle, she at the wheel, he hanging off the bowsprit cutting away huge mounds of kelp. They are also a green boat, light coloured deck, tan-bark coloured sails and bowsprit.
From Ocean Harbour, in good weather, we motored to and from St. Andrews Bay on a number of occasions. That was where we were in amongst about 50 thousand pairs of King penguins plus their chicks, and it was fabulous just to sit all day and watch the full display of courting, brooding eggs, chicks being born and fed. King penguins only have 1 egg which they hold on their feet under a fold of skin during incubation rather than building a nest. Parent changing time becomes a real balancing act and this is when the egg is most vulnerable to Skuas. These are the only penguins that occupy their colony all year, the breeding cycle being only every 2 years as it takes 14-16 months to rear a chick. Last years chicks were big brown fluff balls, also still being fed or malting or going for their first swim in the fast flowing freezing cold water of the glacial river or diving into the crashing waves on the beach. The parents travel several hundred kilometres and dive 100-300 metres, to find food.
One trip to St. Andrews was aboard Theleme with the ladies from Tevakenui also, and made bad comments about a cruiseliner being in the bay. However, most went ashore in the dinghy, leaving only Michele and Julia on board waiting for Richard to come back and pick them up. They waited and waited, watching everyone else wandering around on the beach. Eventually, a runabout from the cruiseliner came and took them ashore, only to discover that the dinghy, in negotiating the narrow passage to the beach, had run into an elephant seal who, finding no way out had chomped thru both inflated sections which deflated very quickly, spilling all aboard into the water. After packing up the dinghy and putting it back on board and then drying everyone out, we only had one hour ashore before the runabout took us all back to the yacht. No more bad comments - we were very thankful that the cruiseliner was there as it would have been a very cold swim back to the yacht, or else Michele and Julia would have had to go back to Ocean Harbour to pick up another dinghy, then returned to collect all ashore. On another trip, we were fortunate enough to see a leopard seal sunning himself on the beach, but kept our distance after seeing a full set of very sharp teeth. We also got to walk on a glacier, very gingerly, and taste the pure cold water of a fountain being forced up 3 feet thru a hole in the glacier. It is sad to see, even here, that the glaciers are receding at quite a rate.
Further south, Moltke Harbour in Royal Bay, was quite windy overnight, but the morning was so beautiful, sunny and calm, that we could not resist going for a walk up the river valley, clambering up the side of the waterfall, and strolling along the alpine meadow surrounded by mountains, with Sooty albatross soaring overhead and calling to one another, and reindeer grazing or drinking from the crystal clear river flowing gently along the valley floor. It was very hard to leave the valley, but the anchorage was not one that the boat could be left for any length of time and have peace of mind. So we headed across to the other side of Royal Bay to see Ross Glacier, weaving our way in between all the growlers calved from the face to get a closer look, before going on down island to Larsen harbour, meeting up there with Theleme and Tevakenui.
Larsen Harbour, we had heard, can be quite windy from the west when it blows down from the glacier at the head of the bay. So, northeasterly, facing the entrance, but half-way down a narrow fjord, we thought, should have been quite OK. We could not have been more wrong and we have a song made up by Tevakenui to prove it. It's called Larsen Harbour Blows, about boats being dragged about by the winds, motors running continuously, and waterfalls flowing backwards. Our anchor dragged but Phil managed to get the motor running and keep the nose up into the strong winds while the anchor was being pulled up, then the second anchor dropped and luckily held as we were pushed over a shallow moraine sideways. Then there was a mad frantic scramble to cut the first anchor free from all the kelp before dropping that again also. The trip line we had on that anchor had to be cut free and lost with all the kelp as there was so much force on the rope and little buoy that we could just not get it free. By the time we had both anchors down, still with the motor running for safety, the water surface was smoking so high that it hid the mast head of Tevakenui who were having trouble anchoring - their anchor kept on collecting stones and would not set. Theleme had put down a second anchor and were running there motor as well just in case. This is where we finally decided that our motor was just too small for safety and we were very lucky that we had the two good heavy anchors ready to go and lots of chain on both. On one anchor, after the 60 metres of chain, we also had 16mm rode to take up the stretch, but because we had broken other snubber ropes (in Ocean Harbour), we also attached a 20mm snubber to the chain end, and just as well because the anchor rode broke sometime during the night. The next few days were either windy, raining or snowing so did not go very far. Managed by dinghy, to go up to the face of Phillipi Glacier, and called in on a Weddell seal sleeping on the beach, visited between the boats or tried to stay warm and dry inside. We agree with the other people who said that this harbour is the worst for weather, maybe being the most southerly.
By now it's the beginning of February so we started making our way back north, first stopping in at Cooper Bay where Theleme had been stuck for 10 days waiting for good weather to move. That day was calm, so we made our way around to the only Chinstrap penguin colony on the island. Unfortunately, these birds had been suffering from avian cholera so we definitely stayed upwind. The colony was packed into a flat wet creek bed and the ground was red from waste products so the pristine black and white of the parents returning from feeding in the sea did not last long. They do not build nests as such, but collect up stones and bones and small sticks to define their area. These penguins also lay 2 eggs. The anchorage stayed calm so next morning, in the drizzle, we hiked up to a macaroni colony to see the poor, wet bedraggled birds in their very muddy, wet environment.
We had also had enough of rain, sleet, snow and overcast skies so pushed on to Gold Harbour where it was nice and sunny and hiked up to the face of a high cliff overshadowed by the huge wall of Bertrab glacier which kept breaking off and showering down the cliff like a waterfall. Along the way we saw, ellies, furries, skuas, giant petrels, a small Gentoo penguin colony and a lovely huge King penguin colony where there were a number of hatchlings so tiny they barely had the strength to hold up their head. Just as well that the days were so long as we could sit and watch these animals for hours, particularly here where the scenery was so picturesque. Gold and St. Andrews were the 2 loveliest areas but both anchorages are so open that we could not really stay unless it was very calm. As it was, we had to leave Gold in the middle of the night, pitch black, we were very thankful we had the radar to show us the way out. Arrived back at Ocean harbour at 9 o'clock in the morning, nearly like coming home, it was such a relief to be in a proven anchorage again.
Stayed in Ocean for quite some time, enjoying the sunshine, recuperating, hiking, visiting with the other 2 boats (had a Survived Larsen Harbour party), watching all the wildlife and generally catching up with their progress. In the beginning we were quite concerned about the fur seals and always carried a stick for defence as it is disconcerting having a 150kg bull come lumbering straight at you. The babies however were so cute, very inquisitive and a whole lot of fun to watch as the played and swam together causing a real ruckus in the water. The ellies were so slow and cumbersome they were not a bother at all as they lay snorting and sunning themselves. Each Gentoo parent must determine which chick needs to be fed, so they run around all through the colony with both chicks running after them, till one chick drops out of the race and the chick left with the parent must be the hungry one and is fed quietly without disturbance from the other chick. In some colonies a long way from the sea, the older chicks form a creche so both parents can spend more time off gathering food for the chick or fattening up themselves, leaving only a few adults at a time to do guard duty. Interesting to watch these chicks run as a group and huddle up together away from the predators like Skuas or Giant Petrels. By the time the chicks are old enough to venture down onto the beach to await the parent coming home with food, it was very hard to distinguish which was which, they were so much alike in size and colouring. One hike we did was over a low pass to overlook the Nordenskjold glacier and Grytviken on the other side of Cumberland Bay. We then moved back to Cobblers Cove and did much the same, hiking and marvelling at the rapid growth of the wildlife babies there. Many, many Antarctic terns that we had not seen before. Also caught a White-chinned petrel coming in to an awkward landing and waddling off to its burrow under the nearby tussock. The call of these birds sounds like the machines of the olden time cobblers, hence the name of the bay - there must have been a lot more of them in the early days to have made such an impression.
Moved on to Stromness Bay again where we spent the next 3 weeks between Husvik, Stromness and Leith, visiting with Theleme and Tevakenui, hiking, enjoying the scenery and, of course, watching the wildlife. Had one wildlife party on board Theleme for the 50th birthday of Michele. We again hiked up Olsen valley, this time with Theleme, going via a different pass and had lunch overlooking the Neumayer glacier which we had not found last time. Met some very nice Norwegian people staying at the Husvik whaling station for 9 weeks to renovate a couple of the buildings. These volunteers came from the same region as the original whalers and felt privileged to see the area and be involved with keeping a small part of the station in order. They invited the 3 boat crews to enjoy a Norwegian dinner one evening and we had a truly international occasion with 5 countries represented. On departure, they left a whole lot of food which they donated to the 3 boats, some of which proved very interesting as none of us could read ingredients or instructions. Came in very handy for us as by now we had been nearly 6 months without shopping and had been collecting dandelion and burnet leaves as greenery for salads.
Prince Olaf seemed to be the best anchorage from which to leave South Georgia so we all moved there though we had to return to King Edward Point to check out before actually heading NW up the island. As we only had a good weather window of 1 day we once again had a long day motorsailing against the current and winds to get to Prince Olaf and arrived at last light just as it was getting dark. At least we had our previous track to follow but still had to negotiate the narrow entrance. While waiting for the best time to leave and head out into the Atlantic we did lots more hiking, visiting and watching wildlife. Also did a lot of work preparing the boat for the intended crossing. Somewhere along the line we changed our minds about going back to Uruguay and South America, perhaps on hearing other boats having a rough time getting there, but also Theleme and Restless, were going to South Africa and we had enjoyed our time there in 1999, wanting to see more and go further afield.
The crossing was about average, we did have some good days, some bad days and some really bad days when we had to heave-to, but even so, saw some birds that we had not seen before but no whales or dolphins. On the last day, trying to come over the continental shelf and into Simons Town, our intended port, we experienced very strong adverse winds and very lumpy seas which were not nice at all. Altered course for Cape Town but soon found that we could not easily make that either so turned further and headed for Saldanha Bay, 75 Nm away. Of course, as usually happens, the wind died down and we had to motor the last half of the way, but we arrived on a nice warm sunny morning early and decided that this was for the best anyway. Don't like big cities and here it is wide open spaces where we can look out over a fairly calm and protected bay.
We were really welcomed and taken good care of by all members of the yacht club so after joining the Saldanha Bay Yacht Club and putting down a mooring we ended up staying for around 2 years, buying a 4X4 and seeing a different kind of wildlife. Ellie sure takes on a different meaning here!!!

Trinidad to North America

2008-11-19T13:05:00.000-08:00

A lovely surprise awaited us in Trinidad. Our friends on Pictoris,
who we had not seen for 10 years, had not been able to leave Trinidad
as planned and were waiting for us on arrival. It was really lovely
to catch up on all the news we had not been able to exchange by email, and to be shown which were the good shops and where to buy "stuff".
After hauling out, not allowed to leave boat in water while absent, we
took off all sails and cleared the deck, storing everything down
below, battening down in case of strong winds, if not hurricanes. Put
out a whole bag of "kitty litter" and Phil rigged some solar powered
fans in the companionway for ventilation, in the hope of not getting
too much mildew inside the boat while we are away for about 5 months
(will let you know how it worked). We did not see any of Trinidad
except some wonderful flowers and greenery, but sure felt the warmth
and humidity while wandering around. Phil is hoping it will have
cooled down some by the time we return.

Our flight out on Friday 18th was direct to Toronto, Canada and after
renting a car for the weekend (and stopping off at Tim Hortons for
coffee & donuts) went directly up to visit friends in Eliot Lake. We
managed to take some Trinidad sunshine with us and had a lovely time
hiking, canoeing and just generally enjoying the lakes and quiet time
catching up on news with our friends and their family.

Ontario had record rainfall this year and we saw some of that,
thunderstorms and hail, when we spent a few days in Oshawa. While
there, Phils checkup with the cardiologist went very well and we have
not heard any alarm bells going off so things seem to be very
satisfactory for him.

The 2 day Greyhound bus journey across from Ontario to Calgary was a
tad grueling, although on both nights we did snag 2 seats each so we
could get some scrunched up sleep. During the days we were able to
see a lot of the pretty (Ontario) flat (Manitoba to Alberta)
countryside which we had not visited for 20 odd years. Staying with
friends again and visiting with other friends, it did seem somehow as
if we had come home again even tho Calgary has changed a lot since we
left in 1985. Change of plans saw us going down to Yellowstone Park
in Wyoming with Sue and Mike, camping and hiking for a week, which we
thoroughly enjoyed and even at 7-8,000 ft up, Phil did very well.
While there, we saw lots of bison, a few elk and 2 sighting of black
bears, one was a mother with cub, as well as beautiful scenery. Many
of the geysers were blowing steam, especially around the "Old
Faithful" area, however, it was very sad to see Mammoth Hot Springs
looking very old and grey due to lack of water flow. Didn't rain
until the last 2 nights, of course while we were preparing a meal.

The next bus ride was thru the Rocky Mountains which is very scenic
with many glaciers on display, and overnight to Vancouver Island where
we caught up with 2 lots of sailing friends whom we had met in
Ushuaia, in the Beagle Canal. We stayed on T Tauri Wind for a few
days and heard all about Don and Vicki's South Pacific sailing after
leaving Chile, which makes us more inclined to go there one day. Then
stayed with Ken & Edith (ex Zephyrus) in their delightful little home
on Gabriola Island. Their 2 year old daughter Zoe is a very
intelligent, enchanting handful and should be a great help when little
sibling comes along in October. All these friends are very adept at
keeping themselves healthy and busy, tripping around either working or
just visiting.

Very kind and helpful friends of Ken and Edith, offered us a ride down
to Seattle (USA), where we stayed with Fran and Jim on their boat,
Cape St James. More catching up of 10 years worth of news as the last
time we had seen them was in Port Elizabeth, South Africa in 1999.
They had returned to work (very traumatic) after a 2 year sail around
the world, but were now in the last phase of again getting the boat
ready for their leisurely retirement sail about the world. We wish
them great sailing, and really envy them in the Alaska portion of the
trip.

Finally on Tuesday August 26th, we flew down to Santa Cruz,
California, where we will be staying with Garth (Phil's brother) and
Wendy. Garth has a list of things that need doing, as well as the
painting of house and garage, so we should be kept busy and out of
mischief for quite some time. It is lovely here and we do enjoy these
times.

We really take pleasure in catching up with family and friends and
receiving emails, so please keep in touch. We wish you all health and
happiness.

Many Regards
Phil & Julia

SALDANHA BAY, RSA to TRINIDAD

2008-07-16T08:30:00.000-07:00

After a frantic final 3 months at Saldanha Bay Yacht Club in South Africa, installing a new Yanmar 30hp engine, roller furling genoa, TBS anti-slip onto deck and cabin top, sanding and painting outside woodwork, hauling out for antifouling, changing the propeller and reworking pipework for sump pumps, etc. etc., the long list of work to do did not seem to get any shorter. During this time we also sold the Toyota 4x4 to a local person who kindly allowed us the use of it till close to departure time which was very convenient.

Had a lovely last braai and evening on Friday and at 09.00 Saturday May 17^th we left, accompanied by 4 other boats to give us rousing send off, which was very special, particularly with such a heavy swell running. The Asic tablets (actually for morning sickness) seemed to help Phil more than Julia who was seasick. I wonder why that!!!!

Until May 29 we experienced very unsettled weather with fronts, rain showers, variable winds both in direction and strength, so motored on and off for 64 hours, just to keep moving and outside the 200m contour line. With usual Illawong luck we managed to get a cold front that stalled out on top of us and gave us calm or light variable winds for 3 days before we FINALLY sailed into the influence of the mid-Atlantic high, close to St. Helena, when a more steady wind of 15-25 knots from ENE – SE set in.

Crossed the equator on June 20 riding the current and this same wind from either aft quarter or wing-on-wing. Was rather ROLLY at times with swells from NE and SW crossing the main SE swell, making the cockpit rather wet and burying the side decks. Every time Phil got comfortable in the cockpit (didn't matter where he sat), a wave would come inboard and he would get doused. Was not comfortable but we were doing daily runs up to 147 Nms. During this stretch, while we were happily rolling the genoa in and out, the wet weather gear came off first, then the sweaters and long pants, very quickly followed by the shorts and shirts tho we did keep the safety harness handy. Also managed a couple of blue water swims and came to enjoy the rain showers thru out the trip for some much needed cooling and cleansing.

Two days after the equator we hit the ITCZ (Doldrums) that calmed the sloppy seas leaving a nice easy gentle swell running still. Had to start motoring again when we couldn't sail but after 3-4 days became concerned about the amount of fuel used, resorting to more of the slow sailing stuff and our daily runs dropped to more like the 80 Nm range. Often less towards Trinidad as we managed to find counter currents where the main Equatorial currents were meant to be especially off the Amazon and the Orinoco.

July 2 at 23.00 the NE trades finally set in and we had a really great romp constantly doing up to 8 knots running – 165 Nms in one 24 hour period ( with a little help from the current). Fantastic. With 90 miles still to go the wind died off completely but by then we had enough fuel to motor all the way over calm seas. Saturday July 5 at 04.00 we anchored in a small bay at Monos Island for a few hours sleep exactly 7 weeks after starting out (taking into account time changes). By 07.00 we were on the last leg of just a few miles across to Trinidad and at 09.00 tied up at the Customs dock. What a lovely calm ending (hot and humid) to a trip much different to the one made in 2000. Overall, Illawong performed very well as usual, and we had no breakages or problems on the boat. With a roller furler well tested and 170 hours on the new engine, we can say we made it – it is possible to leave South Africa in winter, but if we had a choice – well?????

Trinidad is very green with lots of lovely colourful flowers and birds but very humid and it rains almost every day. We are now hauled out and baking on the hard, all Ok and on Friday 18^th we will be flying out direct to Toronto before heading down to California for a couple of months.

2004-12-31T13:56:00.000-08:00

YEAR ELEVEN/TWELVE - ILLAWONG CHRONICLES 2004
South to the Beagle Channel

On New Years Day we departed Mar Del Plata after a nice Christmas spent with Robert and Connie, a German couple we had met in Piriapolis, and Ron an American, both on yachts in the marina. Had a nice evening out in a restaurant on the cliffs above the sea. Sigolene and Alexi, a French couple we had got to know really well were also leaving the morning we left but as they celebrated New Years Eve a bit more then we did they were a few hours later getting out of the harbour.
For once we departed into nice calm conditions and light winds from the aft quarter that lasted for a couple of days then the winds picked up a bit so had a faster sail for a day or so but still from aft and then it quietened down and we spent the next couple of days sometimes motoring and sometimes sailing till we reached Caleta Sara at 45Deg south. During late November and December other yachts had headed this way and had a really tough sail down the coast so we were feeling really lucky, after trying to get south previously with all the headaches we were very pleased that as we got further south the nicer it got. More a result of picking the right month in the right year as we have subsequently got to know after a couple of years down in this part of the world.
We bypassed Peninsular Valdez as we were to late, a big tourist spot to see whales who spend time breeding there in Oct and Nov, but stopped in Caleta Sara where we got to visit our first Penguin Colony with about 6000 breeding pairs of Magellanas Penguins. They are in a protected park and so as to not disturb the penguins too much they had build a path for us to walk along but since the penguins felt that this was a good place to live we spent more time trying to walk over and around then than if we had been just allowed to walk calmly thru the colony and keeping well clear of the nest areas. Noisy and inquisitive and undisturbed they just went about their business feeding the young and protecting nests from Skuas and even other penguin given the cuts and blood that two couples had on themselves. They returned from feeding so heavy and full that they could hardly walk and certainly could not get the belly off the ground for long. They stopped on the shore and got a breather after they were safely out of the water then started the long climb up to where they had left the chick. This was often up to a Km away and up a few hundred metres so no easy climb with a full load. Close by was also a sea lion colony and on the walk to this area we wandered by Guanaco, the local Llama, also Nandu, the local ostrich/emu species and a few Mara, which are a cross between a marmot, dog, deer and rabbit, no known comparison!!!
We had left Illawong in a very shallow anchorage at high tide so we could go ashore and see the colony so now we had to get going and anchor in the outer bay overnight where the depths were ok but not so well protected. In the middle of the night we also found out that the holding was not so great as we dragged the anchor in some good gusts of wind so up and reanchor. This far south we started to get into large Kelp growths and at times it is a bit difficult to convince the anchor to dig into the ground beneath.
The next morning with a dying southerly wind and a nice sunny day we departed and motored around the coast stopping at Isla Leones for lunch, went for a walk but here the penguins were not so used to people or did not know what our dinghy was for as we came ashore they all waddled as far away from us as they could get. Again here the distance that they climbed to get to their chick was amazing and they were all over the place under bushes in rocky holes anywhere out of the wind was OK. The anchorage for lunch was ok but with expected bad weather coming we headed for Caleta Hornos (not to be confused with The Horn) which is an incredible cut into the coast with a couple of nice bends so that once inside you are perfectly sheltered from the seas and most of the winds. This whole area is a raised sea bed and even though you climb up for a few hundred metres you are walking on a ground made up from shells. This area is totally untouched and here Darwin came ashore and was formulating his theories and I doubt that it has changed from that day. Here we also felt that we had truly entered Patagonia with its treeless plains and rolling hills all the way to the Andes. Sigolene and Alexi on Le Chem de Cygne, caught up to us here and we spent the next week together enjoying the area and the company.
On our way south we had been keeping a radio schedule with Connie and Robert on Andiamo who had been giving us the weather from the internet and one windy and gusty morning while talking to Connie I felt Illawong go bump, so quickly looking out I saw a cliff and told Connie we were hitting the rocks and would have to go. We had decided the day before that we should practice anchoring as recommended in the cruising guides (after 10yrs of sailing we should have known better) which we did. The idea is to put two anchors in series, the first connected to the head of the second anchor by a short bit of chain, this would increase your holding into the bottom. Well we did this and then tied back to shore which in small caletas with no swing room this is the only choice. Obviously something went wrong as it did not work and after we loosened the stern line (this is 150m long) we let it run out as we motored away from the rocks and pulled our anchors up. By now they were tangled but they had set OK when we put them down so we removed the first anchor and did what we had always done and just anchored and swung to the wind. I decided that the problem was that when the anchor chain got tight the second anchor was more likely to be picked up than to do what it was supposed to do, work. I finally called Connie back, who was just about having a heart attack, and told her that everything was OK. Later that day we tried again with a slightly different tactic and just attached the second anchor with a piece of chain to the main anchor chain not from the head of the main anchor. Later that night we got a really strong wind from the side of Illawong and again started to drag the anchors so I was out putting a second 150m line ashore from the bow to hold it up against the wind. This worked fine but again in the morning when we up anchored things were a bit of a mess. We decided that we had been smart to put two anchors on the front of Illawong anyway, so I put the book away and now when we need to anchor with two anchors we just put two separate anchors out which works fine if we are tying back as we don’t swing to get them tied in knots. In fact we try to find small caletas where we can tie forward and aft with 2 to 4 long lines and then we really sleep well especially when 40 - 50Kn winds are not the exception.
On the 15 Jan we headed for Staten Island off the tip of Tierra Del Fuego which we arrive at 7 days later after a sail with winds varying from calm to 40Kn but mostly in a favourable quarter for sailing but by know the water had definitely got colder as had the air temperature. Puerto Hoppner in Staten Island is another really well protected anchorage where we could tie with 4 lines but to enter we had to pass thru a narrow entrance about 8m wide with a strong current flowing unless entering at slack water and preferable at high slack as at low it is really narrow. Once inside we tied behind an island. It was incredibly beautiful with waterfalls and the mountains all around. Great hiking up to a series of lakes but so well protected that very difficult to determine the state of the weather outside when the time comes to leave.
After a week of enjoying a playful sea lion, flightless streamer Ducks paddle wheeling their way across the water at a great rate, Pintail Ducks, cormorants and a few penguins we left for Ushuaia.
We are not now sure why we left when we look at our photos but we did and instead of taking advantage of a tail wind thru the Straits of Le Maire we chose to stop and wait for a front to pass which was expected quite soon but as it took till 2am the next day we sat at anchor in an exposed bay till the wind finally died out then turned from the west. It took us 3 days to finally get around the southern tip and it took us 3 attempts as well the first one we did not even get out of the bay before the wind slammed us and the second attempt we managed to get to the end of the strait but by then the wind was up to 40+Kns so we turned around and had to fight to get back to our anchorage, nearly ended up back at Hoppner. The third attempt we got around the corner and after motor sailing at 1.5 to 4Kns into the wind for 12hours we finally made it into Aguirre Bay . The motor was working perfectly, running harder than it had ever done before as we had changed the propellor in Caleta Hornos, repairs carried out in Piriapolis to the Autoprop did not last, and motoring with the smaller prop into strong winds was a real hassle. We then motor sailed, passing thru 55degS and entered the Beagle Canal, to Cambeceres bay then onto Ushuaia arriving 7 Feb 2004.
Ushuaia has a population of about 50000 people, a lot more in summer, at the bottom of Tierra Del Fuego in Argentina and surrounded by mountains and blasted by winds a lot of the time. Just after we arrived in Feb the summer winds died off and we had a really beautiful fall and winter. After talking to a few other yachties who had been here for a while we decided to stay for the winter rather than push on and also we had to organise spares for the Autoprop propeller as we were not prepared to carry on motoring at 2.5kn into winds any longer and sailing down here is a joke if you are heading west, it blows straight down the Beagle Canal with much gusto and when it does not blow you motor where you want to go as fast as you can.
In March our 3 months were up in Argentina so we crossed the Beagle for the first time to go to Puerto Williams and passed Andiamo in the middle of the canal as they headed for Ushuaia so had a very short reunion. Puerto Williams is a real frontier town, many Chile Armada personnel in the past but now slowly becoming more civilian. The population is around 2500 people and as many dogs it seems. As in Ushuaia the officials and the people are really friendly but Chile has the advantage of being a bit more organized and efficient and stable. In Ushuaia you are not quite sure what rules will change when and as Ushuaia wants to be known as the furthest south tourist location they don’t like yachts transporting tourists across to PW, which is further south of course. The only transport at that time between the two centres was by yacht and this can be a costly affair at up to $80USpp one way the going rate with most yachts. We are not quite so mercenary. There are a lot of large charter yachts working out of this area for trips to the Chile Canals, The Horn , Antarctica and Falkland-South Georgia, a lot of yacht movement in the season.
In early April we met Jack and Sara a Canadian couple who came to PW to hike the Dientes trail and after chatting with them for a few hours we decided to take them around The Horn. Had a very pleasant 9 days enjoying Centolla (spider Crab) bought from fishermen for a bottle of wine. The 5 crabs fed us a dinner and a lunch so were tasty. We managed to sail east about around The Horn and Jack, Sara and Julia went ashore on the island while Phil sailed back and forth as there is really no place to anchor especially in easterly winds. Went for a few hikes on different islands and headed back to PW. Had some really calm conditions so was not the storm tossed rounding that the sailing ships of old had to often content with, luckily.
Phil had borrowed a scuba tank so he dove in one of the anchorages and replaced the rebuilt Autoprop, made a real difference to the speed of Illawong thru the water. Unfortunately in rebuilding the prop with the new locking cones they did not lock as expected and this time came undone and threw 2 blades. This resulted in a another swim for Phil, on the edge of the Beagle Canal, this time without scuba gear and definitely in colder water, to put the spare propellor back on. Then a long hassle and fight with Autoprop to at least come to the party in reducing the price on a new propeller as the old style was no longer in the spare parts bin, and Phil had replaced bearing before and adjusted the bearing many times over 12 years without problems, only when new locking cones were bought did everything fall apart. Having the small propeller put us back in Ushuaia and local motoring only as to go up the Glaciers with limited power and a lot of wind was not something we were going to do, so thru to Aug we stayed around the area waiting for the new prop which got lost in Chile Customs somewhere, they get things in the post but don’t notify you they have stopped delivery so expensive things go astray, not stolen just not delivered and charged for storage etc. In the mean time we convinced Garth and Wendy, Phil’s brother and wife that their house needed re-staining and that they should fly us to US for a couple of months to do that and they generously did, but since they have a 2 story house we earned our keep I think. Of course just before flying to US instead of going skiing so as not to break anything Phil went and slipped while out hiking and broke his ankle so he ended up flying to US with a cast on which eventually got cut off with the high pressure water sprayer so he could work on the house. While away an agent in PW located the propeller and got it delivered so on our return we collected the new prop but instead of going for a swim again we dried out alongside the main dock here and fitted it.
By this stage we had all our plans together to go to Antarctica spending time with Le Chemin down there but soon after we returned we were getting some Basel Skin Cancer growths removed when Julia’s was found to be Malignant so after an operation to remove a sizable bit of her Calf, 60mm dia and deep we were not really going anywhere for a couple of months waiting for that to heal. That took care of Christmas and a few months into 2005. So between boat parts, weather and doctors we have been busy living and not doing to much but hopefully that has come to an end, we finally got to go up to the glaciers for 8 weeks in June thru Aug 2005 so after 17 months we have actually done some of what we came down here for and next month in September we will be heading for the Falkland and South Georgia for about 4 -5 months so the next update will cover the Glacier trip which was fantastic and worth waiting for.

2003-12-31T13:39:00.000-08:00

YEAR TEN - ILLAWONG CHRONICLES 2003
Leaving Canada again heading for South America

We left Nova Scotia 21 Oct 2002 to revisit the Azores, our first port of call 9 years before, and looking in the log I see we were both feeling seasick in 25kn winds and sloppy seas so obviously we had been in calm waters and harbours way to long. For those of you with poor memories and those over 50, 1Nm/hr=1Kn =2Km/hr(approx). Well we left late enough to avoid the hurricanes and since we were heading for southern S. America we had to get used to some strong sailing conditions and with a lot of 20-25kn winds and three 50kn gales in a 7 day period, one from ahead on Oct 27 in which we hove to and rode it out with the lee rail buried for about 12 hours. Also had to go out and rescue the genoa which tore loose and was partly overboard in the water, so in temperatures close to freezing and waves breaking over us we were up on the bowsprit tying down the sail and having a warm bath every time a wave washed over us. The Gulf stream was incredibly warm and strong, even though Illawong was physically stopped in the water we actually moved 12Nm upwind in that 12 hours. Luckily by now we had got over being seasick and had learnt a bit about sailing as that was by far the worst conditions we had been in since we started sailing in 1993 and we realised that we had gained a lot over the years as I don’t think either of us felt that things were out of hand, just another obstacle to ride over. Three days later we were running in 50kn winds with Phil in the cockpit having to hand steer as we had hit something that damaged the wind vane self steering which would correct our course in one direction only. Julia would watch as he disappeared every now and then under water as a breaking wave swept across the cockpit but he was well tied on so he stayed in place and then 2 days after that we were again running under bare poles in 55Kn winds but phil had this time rigged some blocks and ropes so that the steering could be corrected when the wind vane did not act fast enough. It still amazes us the size of the waves approaching from behind and how quickly Illawong climbs the vertical wall of water before it crashes down around her. It is always a rogue wave from a different direction that really washes over her deck and sends us leaning over towards the horizon as these of course hit from the up wind side and add to the lean already there.
After this, we decided to try for calmer seas and veered south towards the Canary Islands and then we got winds that were not going to let us do that either, so on Nov 14 we arrived in Madeira with a 35kn gale blowing just to add to the general fun. So we think that after two crossings of the North Atlantic we are not really inclined to do it again, but then we really do have short memories, as long as we don’t read our log books and write these letters.
Madeira is a real pretty island, very mountainous and green, with a lot of trees and forests on the slopes, good hiking but always steep climbs. Like the Azores, this island belongs to Portugal, but unlike the Azores, is so totally over run with tourists that we were not impressed. We anchored out in the harbour as the marina was totally full and expensive. Then when some SE winds were expected, decided it was time to head for Lanzarotte Island in the Canary Islands, which was 300Nm south and an easy sail through choppy seas arriving on the 3 Dec.
Arrecife, the only major town on Lanzarotte, was a nice place to visit. The island is very dry around Arrecife, but else where things a bit greener, but nothing like the lushness of Madeira. The people are very friendly and we enjoyed our stay there, did a few repairs, first attempt at fixing the windvane, and restocked Illawong after flying to Australia for 1 month to visit family. Luckily we were late in arriving as this is one of the collection ports for yachts planning to cross the Atlantic to the Caribbean and can be very crowded till the majority set out in November.
We left Arrecife on Feb 17 and after ten days of nice sailing with mainly calm seas and tail winds arrived in Dakar in Senegal. Sailed into the main port for clearance, which was a bit crappy and totally disorganized, but we persevered, and found all the necessary offices and finally got cleared. We then moved around to the yacht anchorage which was nicely sheltered but it really does have to rate as the dirtiest place we have ever had to anchor. The water was extremely marginal, not swimming water at all, and at low tide the drying weed on the shore was very aromatic. The winds from the shore always carried sand and dirt out onto poor old Illawong who really did get coated and we were not sure that washing it down with sea water was doing much good. Aside from this, there was a very efficient dinghy service for a ride ashore and there it was really a treat, West Africans were friendly, alive and noisy, the woman really like to dress in bright colours and are some of the prettiest that we have seen. We actually liked Dakar quite a lot, dirt and all, nice to shop in markets again, had virtually no problems at all with theft, in fact, in one market, someone tried to open Julia’s backpack, full of food actually, and locals in the market immediately told her to put the pack in front, never behind, and pointed to the open zip, very concerned that we did not get stolen from. Of course we walked everywhere or caught busses, so were always a mark but had a good time anyway. The main streets were wide open thoroughfares, built by the French, everything was in French which was less of a problem than where we are now with Spanish.
After two weeks we headed for the Saloume River, just south of Dakar and spent a week sailing through the delta rivers and trying not to run aground. Really pretty narrow channels meandering through the area with islands with monkeys and birds inhabiting the forests. Managed to actually run aground only once on the last day and were glad to have the Autoprop propeller as we dragged ourselves off again thru the mud, once again wishing we had bought a forward looking depth sounder as well. We came out of the river near the entrance buoy to the Gambier River but decided that now it was mid March and time to cross the Atlantic again for Brazil.
We arrived in Recife in Brazil 1800Nm later after 16 days of light and variable winds blowing from 0-10kn most of the time, with 15-20Kn winds managing to blow for some period during a few days. A much more pleasant crossing that the earlier one. The only real problem was that since we failed to find the Brazilian Embassy in Dakar, we arrived without a visa, which in most countries is not a problem with a yacht, but being Canadian and arriving in Brazil without a visa is a big NONO. We were lucky as another Canadian yacht elsewhere, had been given 2 days to stock up and depart, we at least got 8 days. The local officials did all they could but Brasilia rules, so we had a fairly fast stock up and as we did not have excess time, a problem that we thought was developing with the gearbox was ignored.
Had to make a difficult decision as it was 2000Nm to anywhere from Recife, but on the 10 April we decided to push on South as planned, even though coast hopping would have been much preferred it was not now an option, so we left and headed south into really varying wind conditions. Initially we had light winds, then SE blew just as we were trying to get offshore to sail around a shallow bank, added to that we were fighting with the Equatorial current, that crosses the Atlantic from Africa, pushing us onto the coast and not wanting to use the motor in case we really needed it later, we had a tough time never quite getting outside the bank. Having to heave to in squalls, fighting choppy adverse conditions often with little wind, the current was taking us where we did not want to go. Very frustrating and confusing, but as usual, nothing is forever, the current finally reduced and changed direction as we got near to the bank and after we had made an ultimatum that if we did not clear the bank this tack we would head north. After doing 100Nm south in 4 days and 10Nm south in 2 of those days we were finally heading in a useful direction again though still with head winds. Had to tack our way around the oil platforms that lie along the shallow bank, not as bad as arriving in India or in the Red Sea so could relax a bit.
It was nice then to have some clear sailing as the coast of Brazil is REALLY long, we were finally heading in the right direction now with some help from the current, not as much as it hindered us before, but what is new about that. The further south we got the more we were starting to pick up the Falkland Current which sets N in winter and which we had hoped to avoid but we were late and it was early it seemed to us. We also now started to get what is a very typical weather pattern for down here in the south and that is with a fast falling barometer you get strong Northerly winds and then when the barometer turns so does the wind into even stronger SW, ends up with incredibly awful seas, so damned confused that poor old Illawong did not know which way to turn. We hove to as the wind blew from 25 - 35kn SW for 48 hours, directly from where we were trying to go. Spent a rough but incredible 2 days drifting with Albatross, Petrels, Terns and Storm Petrels flying around us, especially when a fishing boat came motoring by to see if we were ok dragging a net behind, the profusion of birds was fantastic. During the 2 days hove to we had managed to drift north on the current 80Nm and had interestingly followed the 100Metre depth contour perfectly. Now we had to sail south again and of course just as we finished retracing our steps the barometer started on its way down again. We carried on and as the barometer started up we were close enough to Rio Grande Del Sur in Brazil on the exact course we could sail with the rising SW winds so the decision was made to have another bout with the Brazilian Officials. After doing 2408Nm we arrived on the 6 May in 30+Kn winds and the motor working hard with no problems at all (good, but not using the motor caused us all sorts of grief on the way down). We anchored in the outer harbour and later that night when the current started flowing out of the harbour and the environs, a tightrope walker could have walked out on the anchor rode it was vibrating it was so tight. Luckily we had not tried to enter at that time or it would have been impossible. Also glad that the anchor held. Next morning we went looking for the marina and again luckily we found the Oceanographic Museum first who let us stay for free, looked after us and helped with officials. Laurent, the head of the museum, came with us and talked to everyone and even though he is pretty highly connected, the immigration officer would not budge or bend the line at all, so after 3 days of arguing we got 8 days further to stay. Then, after we had cleared out, the weather was bad for another week, but Laurent said that we were not in Brazil we were in his Museum, don’t worry just leave when the weather is right.
So on 27 May we finally left for Uruguay and had a pleasant sail of 230Nm being welcomed into La Paloma with no immigration official available and told we could stay as long as we pleased, but check into Uruguay when we got to the next port. Needless to say we fell in love with Uruguay and her people and ended up staying in Piriapolis for the next 6 months. It is a small country with very lovely people who have the time to smell the roses. We made a number of good friends while in Piriapolis and would like to return there someday.
Local storms called Pompero's came thru Piriapolis fairly often, not always with the same results, 50+knots is pretty normal, the harbour was small and really well protected but even so waves breaking against the stern from just within the harbour were enough to ensure we stayed below.
From here, in September, we did a backpacking trip, generally on good busses, up into northern Argentina to Iguazu Falls on the borders of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, marvellous place to stay awhile, beautiful falls with tropical rain forest, the birds and the impressive views. From there over the much drier Chaco with different bird life to Jujuy Province and the foothills to the Andes, visiting Valle Grande, a 5 hr 100km bus ride, and then a loop back to Piriapolis taking 3 weeks for the trip.
A short sailing trip to Buenos Aries for 2 weeks in early November, visiting the city and doing some spare parts buying for Illawong. New clutch plates for the gearbox just in case there is a problem brewing as down south not too much is available. Realised the discrepancy between BA and the northern part of Argentina, very ostentatious wealth in BA to very poor people in the north, with a factor around 5 times the salary paid for the same job in BA, the cost of living is not much different, especially now with the economic climate in Argentina and rent and housing has dropped so much in BA. Still all told a beautiful city wide open streets and many old style buildings, not all these new modern things that abound everywhere else. The city streets are alive with people and street entertainers, jugglers to Tango Dancers, really enjoyable just to walk around and look at the locals.
We returned to Piriapolis to collect this computer in the mail and except for the fact it was close to Christmas it arrived ok after a slight hassle with customs getting it onto Illawong. With help of the local JRC Radar representative, and the customs office actually working on some days, as they arbitrarily closed when they felt like it. It was delivered onto Illawong by our agent at 1430 hrs on the 18 Dec and we departed for Mar Del Plata, Argentina at 1630hrs, finally heading south again.

1999-12-31T15:04:00.000-08:00

YEAR SEVEN - THE ILLAWONG CHRONICLE
1999 in South Africa USA in 2000

We ended up spending most of the year in Port Elizabeth and around Southern Africa as you would expect from the ever changing plans of the Illawong crew, it is totally boring to actually do what you plan and going with the wind is easier even if it pushes us alone roads instead of sea lanes so this year you get an account of sailing on land except near the end when we do a few miles changing continents.
We were the local welcoming commitee to all the cruising boats that came through Port Elizabeth (PE) and went with one couple upto Addo Elephant Park near PE. This park is a reserve for the southern most elephants in SA and has a very low shrub bushy type vegetation which makes it quite difficult to see through. After driving around the park all morning not seeing alot we went back to the cafeteria and there were 60-70 elephants at the water hole just across from the café so we got a good look at our first elephants en-mass. Pretty impressive. Also got invited to a Potie (poiky) which is a meal cooked in a hot on a open fire with all the meat and vegetables layered in but never stirred. It was delicious and very rich as was the desert. The rest of the time we got into sanding and preserving the exterior wood on Illawong with a finish to our liking that is easy to maintain if we can lust find the same wood preservative world wide we will be fine, During the time we were finishing our projects and getting the engine running again we had being trying to decide where to sand blast the bottom and repaint and after hearing about 10000 boats in Trinidad lining up to do work and cape Town not working out it turned out that the Port Authority in PE would lift us out in their yard with a 72tonne crane and we could do everything right where we were. We were concerned about the strong winds affecting the work. rightly so; the variable climate, rightly so; the manganese oar dust. rightly so; the sandblaster everyone recommended, rightly so; the security on the dock. wrongly so; and getting all the paint from company in Capetown. wrongly so; we got lifted out in the middle of March. Came the day to start blasting, a heavy sea fog rolled in and stayed all morning. The contractor still wanted to sandblast. in the fog - we didn?t - he got fired. After trying to find another contractor to sand blast, Louis. who does alot of painting on the yachts said he wanted to get into the business and was looking for an excuse to buy the equipment so we decided to go that route even though it meant waiting for a couple of weeks. Three weeks later we tried again, on a much more friendly and ameniable basis. But it did take a lot longer the get the job done than we thought as epoxy primer is tough stuff. but it was done the way we wanted so for us. much better. Louis blasted and zinc primed 1/5 of lllawong in a day but with the strong winds and a good portion of rain it took two weeks to finish the blasting and zinc priming. We did all the rest of the painting except when Louis came down to lend a hand. We had being carrying Jotun epoxy primer from Malaysia to paint Illawong with but in the end decided to but new Jotun paint in SA and ended up putting most of the two lots of paint on as better on the bottom than inside the bottom. Six coats of epoxy paint and three coats of antifouling later it was the 21 May. The first month on the hard was free but in actual fact it was a month before we even got started sand blasting but in the normal helpful friendly manner of many of the south Africans when the office finally bought the bill down a week after we were back in the water the dockmaster told his office that we had left and told us there was nothing to pay so the total crane cost $100US and the blocking to support Illawong cost $I5OUS (had to rent blocks from Port Authority rigger) but the time on land ended up being free so overall was a relatively cheap haul-out and hopefully a long time before we have to go through that again ( grit blasting is a dirty business). Louis lent us his polishing buffer as well so we polished Illawongs sides above the water and they looked lust like new. We got real friendly with a French couple which is surprising as they were going to pull out to fix a stern gland leak and decided to wait till we had finished sandblasting. As this took so long they, like us. ended up changing their plans completely because by the time we had finished it was too late to go around Cape Agulhus so we delayed them by a year. They did not hold it against us as they decided that they liked our green boat and got Louis to prime and repaint “Pictoris” to a darker shade frown the white original.
While on the hard we started looking for a van to go traveling with and a friend saw one in a yard so we bought a 1970 VW Combi. Looked in very good condition, ran well. Took one of the two back bench seats out and fitted in a bed and table for camping. B the beginning of June we were ready to roll -Wong-on-wheels (alias The Blue Whale). Or perhaps “Wheely-Wong” as, after only 1.000 kms. we asked our bank manager for another ZAR5. 000 for a VW reconditioned engine - yeah. but it came with 12 month, unlimited mileage warranty good in South Africa. Namibia and Botswana including towage to the nearest VW service center if that became necessary. This made our holiday quite a bit more expensive as it meant dutifully having VW warranty service on the engine instead of doing all the maintenance ourselves, As it was, after every checkup. Phil had to finish or redo part of the lob, like refit sparkplug leads, refit alternator cable, retime the engine the old fashioned way after the experts with all their machines did it wrong, all sorts of little minor things. We were compensated b having the engine bay sprayed clean and the whole van washed and dried (by hand). but this does not really help when you struggle to get up hills with an engine tuned way out of whack, or rush the van to start when the battery is drained. We now think that the van had sat for a long time not being used before we bought it which brought it?s own little niggledy problems as well. Phil was never without worry of what would go wrong next. On the whole, it was quite comfortable and very convenient, particularly when we could get out of bed straight into the drivers seat if any problem should arise during the night, or crawling into the back for breakfast or lunch out in the parks when you are not allowed out of the car. Of course we also had a bit of a problem with our expired Canadian DL but it is amazing what colour photocopies and cutting and pasting can do. Think we might try $100US bills next.
We left Port Elizabeth (PB.). which is in the SE corner of South Africa. on a lovely, sunny Saturday, early in June and promptly got lost. Zig zagging our way alone back roads, within 20 kms from P.S.. we finally found a good highway and headed NB. Our first lunch stop Phil checked the engine and found a small oil leak. We carried on into Graff Reinet and spent the next day visiting a small game park and a scenic lookout with an overview of the surrounding semi-desert country of the Little Karoo. Quite hilly in that area with stunted, hardy vegetation.
Monday we had the vans main gearbox oil seal replaced. Tuesday we were off again, driving up onto a flat plateau with lust a few ridges of mesa type hills, mostly beef and grain farming. plenty of winills all about. About l3Okms from Upington, virtually in the middle of nowhere, one engine cylinder collapsed. The van would still run so we kept filling it with oil and gingerly kept going until we tried one hill too many. 20 kms from our destination. Just on dark, the second car that came along belonged to a towing company so we managed a tow into town and slept in the van in their yard that night. Next day, VW came and towed us into their workshop and that is where the van stayed for the next week while a reconditioned engine was organized to come from P.E!!!!). We had a tent with us so were able to lounge and relax (and fret) at a very nice campground by the river close to town.
Heading north thru flat, flat country with sparse vegetation, leading into salt dunes and sandhills we arrived at Kalahari Gemsbok National Park. Here in the Kalahari Desert we spent 4 days cruising up and down the main road along Nossob riverbed, then across arid sand dunes to Mata Mata riverbed leading back to the main gate, covering 900 kms. Animals we saw include gemsbok. or course, springbok. ostrich. wildebeest, cheetah, red hartebeest. duiker, lion (lyin? around as usual), black-backed jackal, suricate. 1 leopard so briefly that we could not photograph, and many birds, vulture, eagle, bataleur, owl. hornbill, Kori bustard. secretary bird. korhaan. weaver, crimson boubou (shrike). Saw cheetah at 2 different kills (springbok) and wanted to stay to watch the lion DO something but it got very late, until finally we (and 2 4WD vehicles) had 35 minutes to do 45 kms on sandy, corrugated roads (the sed limit in the Park is 50k/h) or get fined at the gate for being late. We left first so we didn?t et the dust trail thrown up in our face and arrived at gate with a couple of minutes to spare. Luckily no elePhants in Park to block the road. The last morning we woke up to ice on the inside of the front window. We thoroughly enjoyed this very interesting Park which is robab1v the least impacted by man of all the parks we went to and is an open park for the animals as they can roam all the way from here across the desert to the Okavango Delta in Botswana.
From this park all through Namibia we were driving on gravel roads which the combi was well suited to as well as some real 4WD roads which it wasn?t really suited to but coped with real well. Lucky us we arrived at the border post to Namibia 1/2 hour after it had closed and were preparing to spend the night there. However the police, who had seen us drive thru town and came out to check, said the cheif immigration officer was arriving back from Namibia around 18.00 and the border would open for him and his family so we could go thru also at that time. Very obliging people but actually happened around 20.00 and we had to take the cheif into town to get the 2nd in command out to the border post to actually do the paper work. The Namibian officer stamped us into His country but we never did clear with customs nor have to pay the car road tax, luckily they were not to worried about all this when we came to leave Namibia. We then carried on for an hour until we could find a pulloff beside the road to sleep for the night (nowhere in South Africa would we have dreamed of doing that). By midmorning the next day we were in KeetmanshooP organising a 1,000 km service on the Combi (a little bit overdue and alot rushed).
The Namibia we saw seemed to be alot of flat dry desert valleys with rangers of very rugged massive hills, jutting up. some mesa-topped, others, with shapely wind-carved rock formations. thru which the road wound. Some of the wild animals here truly roamed free altho where theY found water or food was hard to tell - baboon and springbok on the plains. kudu in the mountains and gemsbok. zebra, ostrich and wild pigs more out in the desert. The gravel roads through Namibia were a delight to drive on. wide with little traffic and very well graded on a continuous basis. We often passed graders towing a caravan as they moved to the next section of road they were going to work on. It was good to see a country run by Africans actually working as well as the lob being done without obvious supervision which does not seem the case in SA. Toured thru Namib-Naukluft Park but did not get to see the “tallest sand dune in the world”, however, there were some very nice specimens behind the port town of Walvis Bay. Out along the extensive reclaimed roadways of the salt mines south of the port, we saw thousands of both greater and lesser flamingos making a delightful display of pink and white. Stocked up a bit at Swakopmund and here stayed in our first caravan park in Namibia right on the Atlantic. Mostly in Namibia we got off onto a small back road and found a overnight stopping place varying from off the side off a road to driving off on a two wheel track behind a hill or into a forest to camp for the night. Nainibia has quite a small population compared to the area of the countrY so not alot of traffic nor tribal people about, We were never bothered at all even when we were discovered by a local villager, though they usually were curious at first but then wandered on their way. Campground in Namibia ran around $20-25US/night, a bit stee for our pocket. We headed north along the flat, flat, sandy skeleton coast then inland again heading towards the next Park. Took on fresh vegies in Outjo where we also picked u 2 punctures in the same back tyre and a cut near the sidewall making us forever thankful for the C$70 !!! tyre repair kit purchsed earlier in the trip. Nicely sharpened pieces of steel in a neat line across the tire and a nail were a bit suspicious as was the guy who stayed near the van while we were parked, I expect he had a job creating work for a local garage.
Arrived Etosha National Park early after an overnight bush camp somewhere just south of the gate (we were lost at the time - ma not that accurate). Had a really good day watching various animals interacting with others as they came to drink at water holes. We found it absolutely fascinating and could sit for hours watching and photographing. We were parked quite close to the water holes in Etosha so it was excellent for viewing all the animals. seeing Giraffe trying to get low enough to drink but always watchful and uncertain if it was a safe thing to do and the elephants. the sheer size of them. it is not much wonder they dominate the water holes when they arrive. All the others come and go sometimes without obvious caution but others always some anxiety showing through. many kudu with their long spiraling horns and Gemsbok with their stately clothing and straight horns looking very well dressed. Luckily we had bought a book on all the animals as some are easy to identify but a lot are quite similar,
By the time the four months were gone we were getting pretty good at figuring who was hiding in the bushes though. Saw lions mating but a bit far off even for Phil ‘s 600mm lens ( 75-300zoom + 2* teleconverter but really not good enough). It seemed the eastern side of the Park was much more vegetated. spinifex. desert grasses, low scrubby bush up to tall shady trees and this is where we saw the animals mostly around water holes but not always. Waited for one large herd of blue wildebeest to cross the road in front of us but they did not cross till a zebra came and stood in the middle of the road. After a while the zebra had had enough and walked off and the wildebeest stopped crossing the road and only started crossing again when another zebra stopped in the middle of the road. This happened 3 times, talk about a “zebra crossing”, but we did have to laugh. Central camp Halali spotlighted the camp waterhole at night so we sat up till 2.OOam to watch. Elephant 1, Rhino 1. lioness 1. wild cat 1. and we got mighty cold. Next night we went better prepared and had a lovely time with quite a lot of action. Curious to watch a young male elephant keep a determined rhino away from the water, funnier still to watch that same elephant run backwards trumpeting and squealing when the rhino gave a mock charge but there was no way the 5 rhinos were going to drink until the 40 odd elephants of all sizes left. Last to leave. the large Matriarch sauntered over to where the rhinos had grouped, waved one foreleg and trunk with the explicit message “you only Push my youngsters so far. then you have to deal with me. Watch it!!!!!?
Spent alot of time sitting at waterholes and had elephants leaving the area lust inf rent of where we were parked. This was fine as the babies wandered of f with the mother and siblings until the Matriarch coming last decided she wanted to cause a ruckus as she decided to mock charge us and a small red car parked beside us. Mock charge or not when an elephant trumpets and waves ears and leans menacingly forward and you can see the red of her eyes believe me you leave in a hurry the only problem was that the small red car backed into the road and blocked us from backing up right out 0 f the way. Matriarch was still looking at us with a look that said we had not really backed far enough away so we took our only choice and drove off around the loop between her and her herd. We kept going deciding that was enough ? their were other water holes to see. places to go etc. We covered 750 kms in 4 days in this park before the clutch cable broke. There was no way Phil wanted anything more to do with Outjo so drove thru and found a picnic pulloff on a rise so we could push start the van in the morning altho Phil was very good at picking the right revs to change gears by this stage it was starting off that was a problem. After driving about 25Okms. luckily right on the main road into Otliwarongo we found the VW service centre and rolled in there. Our luck held as they even had the cable we wanted, while we were at it we got a new accelerator cable as well, for justin(case).
After topping up with fuel, oil. brake fluid (leaking somewhere). food. ice and money, and having the sidewall cut. now a puncture, repaired (supposedly) we set out again, this time for the real outback, the northwest corner of Namibia - Epupa Falls on the Kunene river, border to Angola. Passed thru more mountainous country, had a moments hesitation and watched an old bus climb up Grootveld Pass (1540 metres) before we attempted it in first gear all the way up, red rocky ground, some vegetation in the wide riverbeds but very sparse on adjacent hillsides. This of course is shown as 4WD country but we had a combi so we were all right and we were actually. Good ground clearance and a low gear to climb over boulders works every time, We had been told about the cultural diversity of tribes in Opuwo still living and wearing their traditional clothing (what there was of it in a few cases). It was an interesting stop but pretty dismal in alot of ways. very poor. dry and dusty and while in separate villages out in the country the people can live in dry desert conditions in towns this seems to lust make for a bleak existence. our main interest in Africa was seeing the country and the wild game, we never really took a liking to being in the populated areas, the tribal people were always friendly but so many standing around doing nothing all da it was just too depressing, From Opuwo we headed north along a deteriorating road but never got to bad as long as we could straddle the washaways down the middle of the road and climb the hills at the same time. Along here we often came upon local people and everyone wanted a lift to who knows where, a couple of young kids one time and a couple of woman another. Phil was tempted as the woman of the H!!!!!! tribe tan there skin and long hair the
same golden reddy bronze colour as they tan the hides they wear around their hips, Along with this they a most often very pretty arid shapely and very out of place with the harsh conditions that they must live and work in. Still it is always enjoyable to look though in general the men did not seem to have very pleasant features in comparison. The Epupa Falls campground was run by this tribe and was a real nice stopover with the Kunene river dropping around 30Metres in seven separate falls. We got a lovely spot right beside the river under a large tree and enjoyed our couple of days stop with a strenuous climb upto the top of the tallest peak we could get too which gave us a good view over the river and into Angola. No way to cross and with crocodiles in te river we were not going swimming not to mention all the other nasty bugs in rivers these days. A few people came up and said It was good to see a old combi in these areas again as now a days everyone has 4WD+trailer with tent on top of vehicle or trailer. On top of that alot of South Africans don’t believe in suffering to much so the paraphernalia that traveled was interesting. One lady had her 3 tier beauty case open making herself look lovely which may have been in reaction to the local young ladies who wandered through the area every day.
We were planning to head back along the river from here to Rucana at the end of the good asphalt road but when we found out that the 4WD guys where averaging around 10km/hr over this track we changed our mind about that and after being told that the next road back would be Ok for us b a combi driver ( later version with limited slip diff) we decided to try that. It stated out ok but when we hit the river we found ourselves climbing over large boulders one wheel at a time we decided to stop for lunch and think about our options. Deciding that it was to far to go back and around via the good roads we decided to Push on for the 40km we had to go. Turned out that we had already got over the worst part and except for a couple of wide river beds that we pretty sandy and one that had a fair drop off into the river bed we had no other problems, Luckily we were going the right direction as julia firmly believes we would not have made it up out of the river bed without help if we were going the other direction. From Rucana we stayed up near the Angola border and headed east on gravel roads till Rundu and then across the Caprivi Strip above Botswana on a good asphalt road. We only saw a few old elephants as we crossed the Caprivi strip and headed a short way off road to Mudumu National Park where we could camp for free (no facilities at all) right on the bank of the Kwando river and enjoy the sound of twenty Hippo?s grunting at each other through the night right below the car. We were the only ones there and it was ok to walk around. Elephants visited down river a bit. croc?s on the other bank plus springbok and impala coming down to drink along with a large number of different birds in the trees around us as well as a pretty acrobatic baboon troop that leapt from tree to tree in the evenings. Had a fire every night and sat under the stars in the middle of Africa, it was great. Off again for Victoria Falls we stopped shortly at Katima Mulilo and then crossed into Botswana over the Chobe river at Ngoma. (This area closed a few weeks later because of uprising but appeared calm when we were there). Victoria Falls was pretty neat but we are glad we walked across the bridge into Zambia to view the falls, nice to be able to sit beside the water and have picnic lunch. Also viewed from the Zimbabwe side but that is rather over commercialized as is all of the town of Victoria Falls, Glad to head off for Main Camp in Hwange National Park and get back to viewing animals. Elephants are not a problem to find here as there are about 36000 of them along with immense numbers of Buffalo and herds of antelopes and zebra?s, with large numbers of Giraffes and as well the predators in fair numbers, we saw Lions and cheetahs but still managed to not find any leopards. The park was open from sunup to sundown so we would get up and go very quickly and tr to find a good waterhole to stop and have breakfast watching the animal do their thing. Often tried to et off the main roads away from other people so some times ended up on two wheel tracks wondering where we were going to end up. Found a really quite waterhole and had a progression of single animals come to visit, saw our first Sable which we reckon are the most beautiful animals of them all, though this guy only had one horn, still looking regal. Also saw a heck of alot of elephants at various waterholes and here we saw the youngest elephant it was tiny compared to mum, only lust came upto mum?s belly and very protective, as soon as we drove up off she went but after we sat for a while she came back but never to close, all the waterholes in Hwange Park are supplied
from wells with diesel pumps and an attendant lives at each well to maintain the pump and operate as required but it is a bit much trying to imagine being in the wilds of Africa with a chug-a-chug-a-chug going all the time. The animals learn to ignore it and so did we eventually, wind mills are better but not as guaranteed to pump. After a couple of days at Main Camp we headed for a central campsite and on a loop road caught sight of a hyena ahead of us. followed him onto a small road but never saw him again but as we were on this back track now we carried on, came across a park vehicle trying to radio track a Rhino without much success so we carried on along a road that appeared to be completely coated with old elephant doodoo an all the bush totally eaten off at elephant mouth height. After ending up at a pretty disgusting waterhole that looked like nothing would drink from we headed back out to the main road and the guys in a car pointed out a wild dog pretty well hidden in the undergrowth. We could just see a few dogs but as they were heading for the road we drove on and parked at a tee junction hoping they would cross the road giving us a great view. In all seven wild Dogs wandered across the road and did not even get to uptight when we drove closer. They a really nice looking with a orange to brown mottley colouring and the males have white bushy tails. Wild Dogs are also very rare so we counted ourselves lucky. We also managed to find a really nice lookout with deck chairs overlooking a waterhole that had a never-ending stream of animals to it with hippos in the water. We had gone wandering again on two wheel tracks and found a small plane airstrip and trying to find our way out came across the platform. Appears to be their for a the exclusive Giraffe Springs Lodge situated in the park itself, we made good use of it for them anyway, we saw heard s of sable roan, zebra. wildebeest. giraffe, impala and elephants coming and going all the time we were their. The next morning near the central campground is a couple of dams where we went lion searching first thing in the morning. This time we found a rack of Hyena drinking and fighting over a bone one had. It was so early Phil could not even get a decent photo but luckily they seemed content to squabble and drink around by the water but a fair way a way so not to easy to see, eventually they appeared to be heading away fro. the dam towards the road so off we go again to intercept if possible. Well we got pretty close and in the end backed off because they were hooting and hollering like hyenas do. back and forth between themselves at out intervention as it appeared that they had tucked a kill away in a culvert under the road and wanted to retrieve it and leave but would not while we were parked there watching. Intriguingly one of the hyenas was hurt and though limping on the jog upto the road, on the road it was walking along on its front feet only with its hurt hind legs tucked forward balancing itself nicely, quite amazing to watch. As in all the parks spent alot of time looking . alot of time driving and did a heck of a lot of miles, got into trouble with a few more elephants who reckon that might makes right and get indignant when you don’t see them from around the corner. One chap was close to a cliff and we drove up cutting of f his freedom, we were lust following the road, but the hollering and tantrum that followed was interesting to say the least. The noise that happens when the road passes between mother and young and a blue whale passes between. reached for the volume knob but the radio was of f. Hwange was an indication that we probably do not know what we are doing when it comes to running game parks. Policy seems to be that the system worked if old Africa so it will work on a small scale as well and on top of all that the poor endanger elephant must be protected. lust watch any show on TV. Since they can no longer pump sufficient water to keep 36000 elephants alive (100 - 200L/day/elephant is needed), let alone the thousands of buffalos on down to dik dik?s I am glad we got there when we did. Conservation is something unknown to elephants who completely take over for their own survival.
from Hwange we headed off to we managed to get an extremely useless VW service done. It was not running real well when we went in and real bad after we came out, even took it to a Bosch service center to no avail. Off we went from there to Old Zimbabwe Ruins which were sort of like finding old roman ruins in darkest Africa. out of place to the normal village scene but proof that they can get there act together if they want to. From here we headed across to the Mocambique border to Gonarezhou game park and arrived after dark so decided to came outside the park gates. After a slight todo with a rather large stone sign naming the park. Phil backed into it going very slowly and knocked it completely over, smashing our back window in the process. we deciding that discretion was the better part of valour headed for the South african border.
Aftre a long climb through passes we made Petersburg in SA and stayed in a campgroung attached to a small, game reserveand Phil manually retimed the engineback to #1 cylinder which made a heck of a difference thankfully as we were off the meet Julia?s Mother in Johannesburg airport in around a week. A quick side trip into Kruger National Park for 4 days first was a mixture of good viewing and frustration at the inability to get close to animals. We saw an incredible variety of animals but not a lot in numbers except for a truly immense herd on Zebra and Wildebeest. easily over a thousand animals together. It boggles the mind to think that less than 100yrs ago herds used to be so large that they could take upto 3 days to pass, it would have been amazing to see, and we still kill for sport. Kruger is a pretty civilized park and generally fully booked but one of the benefits of having a camper worked here as in Etosha. On arrival at the Northern end of Kruger we booked into the camp around here. which is generally not full, and then traveled to wherever we wanted to stay the next night arriving close to gate closing time. This ensured that they had to let you star and as there is a heck of a large campground area but only a limited number of official sites with BBQ and power, it was not a problem except if some idiot came late and took a BBQ spot somebody had booked. We had no problem getting camping but getting accommodation would be really difficult.
Dear Marguerite and Alain June 11. 2000
How time has flown. We trust that by now you have had a safe journey to somewhere near France, hopefully holed up in Tunisia or another alternate safe harbour (we know how glans can change from one day to the next).

The day we left PE we heard you call on the radio for harbour clearance and the next day radio your arrival at Mossel Bay. We tried to contact ou but could not get through so we knew that you ot that far at least. Then we received your letter from Gordons Bay. Were you able to travel inland very much while your friends were with you? How long did they stay?

Our trip was very good. We had fantastic weather going along the bottom of South Africa, tail winds so good that we did not stop anywhere, After rounding the Cape of Good Hope the wind died for the morning and fog set in - we heard a few tanker fog horns, one so loud it really made us lump, so we motored for a while to et away from that area. After that, when the wind picked up again from the west, we headed more northerly than we wanted, more or less straight up the coast line till eventually when we were nearly opposite Walvis Bay the wind turned again from the southwest and we could make a line towards St. Helena. The winds were not strong but the seas were a bit lumpy closer in to the coast.

Had a beautiful Christmas day, bright, sunny, calm. New Years Day was similar and we celebrated very well without any worries of problems associated with the “millenium bug” - our GPS continued to work well although we Presumed that would be OK before we left PE. Just to be out there on our own on such very pleasant days was wonderful. Had a few calm days lust south of the equator where we used the spinnaker, one night a little too long and the fitting at the masthead broke, Phil had to make 2 very rocky trips to the top in order to get that fixed again, Crossed the equator on Jan 17 after 36 days and 4,340 miles. The winds were again heading us northerly and we crossed the equator at about 34 deg, 28 mm., a little bit further east than we had intended, and as it turned out, much too far east as we spent the next 10 days in rough seas, we feel due to the equatorial counter-current going against adverse winds aggravated by a very sharp rise of the seabed following the Venezuelan coastline - it was not nice but we could not seem to et out of it no matter which way we sailed. Once out of the current, the seas settled down again and the sailing was very pleasant.
Tried to start the motor to run it for a while - wouldn?t start. Phil worked on it for 2 days but still could not et it to run. Then it was a matter of where we should go. St Thomas in the U. S. Virgin Islands looked an easy harbour to sail into. The night before making our landfall, the U.S. CoastGuard motored across lust missing our bow, then turned their spotlight onto us. Phil got rather annoyed and told them off over the radio as their navigation lights were not working making it difficult to tell lust how far off they were, They apologized, and next day they were waiting for us near the entrance to St. Thomas but again we were saved, by a thunderstorm rain cloud which lasted for some time and we think they didn?t want to et wet by boarding us. Anyway, arrived safely and anchored in the outer harbour, after 6,570 miles in 53 days sailing non-stop. Could not then et our outboard engine to start, eventually got the new outboard out but that would not start either. We were really in a bad way as far as engines were concerned. Next day, after Phil had made a second paddle, we paddled ashore when it was calm and booked in with Customs and Immigration. Also bought some new Petrol for the outboard engines and spent 2 days getting them running after cleaning out all the fuel lines and water cooling lines and checking this and that and everything else. After a week we felt game enough to tackle sailing into the inner harbour where it was more convenient and much calmer. There is a lot of boat traffic with charter boats. da trip boats and huge cruise-liners. In all, we were there a month, spending a few dais with Jean and Derek on Mustard Seed, and working on the engine, had to re-grind the valve seats. Particularly on No.3 cylinder. Once it ran we shut it down carefully, as we did not want to try it again until we arrived in the St. John?s river in Florida. We also tried to find other easily accessable marinas in Florida into which we could sail and increased the towage miles on our BOAT, US membership insurance, just in case we had to be towed in somewhere.
Took 13 dais to sail north outside all the islands of the Caribbean and Bahamas. waited 12 hours for the wind to turn from north to east before crossing the Gulf Stream and arrived to anchor lust inside St. Johns river mouth at midnight. The next morning the motor started first try, but we decided to sail up the river anyway as it was such a lovely da and the wind was right direction and speed. Spent the next 18 dais going up river to Jacksonville, booking in with Customs. going further up river to Green Cove Springs Marina where we had hoped to stay (they were full) but took our mast down and laid it along the deck as the next bridge up river was too low for us, Had to motor from then on up to Acosta Creek marina (90 miles u river) where we are now - and the motor started and worked well each time we needed it. This marina is in a lovely setting, there is an old 2 storey house used for “Bed and Breakfast” accommodation, 6 sites for caravan or camping, all set in amongst old, shady trees with moss hanging down from the branches like grandfather beards, cardinals, woodpeckers, starlings and crows. ospreys. cormorants and eagles, squirrels running around and armadillos (anolins) digging holes in the lawn at night. Have at last seen a manatee and can watch the crocodiles lazily swimming past so obviously we are not swimming here (the water is very brown). There is 2 docks with berths for about 25 boats on each. We also get to watch a movie on Thursday night up at the “River House”. One big drawback is that it is about 15 miles from the closest shopping centre.
Have bought a van here to get around North America as must visit Canada, travel to California to see Phil's brother and get around for shopping of course.
Alot of work on Illawong before we leave so we will keep busy at least.

1998-12-31T15:03:00.000-08:00

YEAR SIX - THE ILLAWONG CHRONICLE
1998 - Indian Ocean Crossing to South Africa

We will probably be remembered back in Perth by the family as we seemed to get involved with organizing Phil's Dad to get his house on the market which meant distracting him in one room of the house while we silently disposed of as much of the accumulated years of living as we thought we could get away with, this took us most of the five months we were visiting; being with Julia's mother while she had a cataract operation on her only good eye; also being with Phil's sister while she beat off an attack of breast cancer. We felt that going sailing would be a nice rest for everyone. Phil's beard had turned so grey that it is most definitely a thing of the past for awhile.
We have never really been very superstitious of leaving port on a Friday if every thing conspires for it to be, so on Friday May 22, with all the family who could possibly make it waving at the dockside, we left heading for Singapore. Had 3 good days sailing with varying easterly wind directions and relatively smooth seas until finally the wind came around to the north and blew force 7, gusting 8 and we hove-to. According to the GPS we drifted 18 Nm in a half circle in 17 hours while we waited for the wind to die down. After that it improved to some really nice sailing with full main and genoa doing up to 7Kn with various wind strengths and sail combinations that lasted all the way, back past Christmas Island, up till about 60 miles from Sunda Strait. As we got close into the tropics the weather could be felt and seen with the humidity increasing and rain squalls all over the place. We had some great showers and collected a lot of rain water into our tanks from really prolonged rain squalls. At night as we approached Indonesia the lightning over the land was pretty awesome. Phil sat and watched a waterspout form from its cloud and slowly wind its way down to sea level. This took about 10min in which time poor Julia was running around ILLAWONG tying everything down including Phil, not herself, she was headed down below. It was really interesting and the turbulence at sea level with the spray being created was something else. It was about a mile or so away and finally got up a real out-of-kilter wobble and fell apart. Phil kept saying we were privileged to see this but Julia did not really believe. Westerly winds picked up and later that night died off all together. We started motoring but finally realised that motoring into a 2Kn current and the chop we were not really getting too far and would not have enough diesel to get up thru Indonesia without a stop so we spent the next 2 days trying to sail with the available westerly winds but tacking to windward into a 2Kn current was also a waste of time. Decided to head back to Christmas Island fill up with diesel and wait till the weather changed back to what it had been since we left Perth.
Off to Christmas Island we go with a good tail wind that of course eventually died off so back to motoring as we wanted to arrive before the weekend for Customs. Motored all night and then as we arrived in the morning we were fighting 40+Kn head wind straight off the island. The motor was now playing up again, with probably blocked filters, but it kept running with hiccups so with the staysail up we managed to motorsail, tacking upwind, to pick up a mooring. An hour or so later the wind died off totally of course. Anyway checked in with Customs, went shopping and had a sleep. The next morning there was a real swell entering the harbour and could not go ashore but got the weather map from Darwin, which showed nothing untoward so decided to ride it out. Late that afternoon with police flashing all their car lights at us from onshore, the Harbour Master radioed that it was going to get a lot worse and recommended we leave. Phil had not looked at the engine hoping that Sunday would be easier, side onto a swell with waves breaking 200 metres further in was not a good time to try and figure out engine problems. Anyway, up with all the sail we could safely carry and the engine working flat out when it felt up to it we slowly clawed our way out of the bay tacking from one side to the other. We have always said land is dangerous and that is about as close as we want to get to going back to work to build another yacht. Hove-to off the island for 2 days then picked up the mooring again on Monday. The waves were still coming in but decided to chance going ashore to get some groceries which we stuffed inside compartments in the dinghy hull - that was OK. Coming off was the real exciting part, we had our bath for the day and the dinghy was half swamped. After that the water bottles were filled, Julia waded in with the bottles, caught the rope Phil threw from the dinghy, tied the bottles on and Phil towed them out through the breakers where he could haul them into the dinghy, run out to Illawong, fill the tanks and then return, throwing the bottles to Julia to fill again.
By Tuesday the weatherfax showed there was still head winds all the way to Singapore, have to fight to get thru Sunda Strait, had to fight to get to Christmas Island, had to fight to get out again in bad weather, with sick motor. Can't stay, can't go to Singapore so we will go where the wind will favourably take us - Rodrigues, Mauritius and South Africa. (So, is this the sort of thing that happens when you leave on a Friday??)
Finally got filter changed and engine seemed ok so on Thursday 18 June headed for Rodrigues. Of course engine would only give 2000rpm max and very unsteady so pulled up sails, shut off motor and left under main and genoa. By 1800hrs that day we were down to 2 reefs and staysail only and we stayed like that for the next 5 days, then went to 3 reefs and staysail. We were doing around 6Kn most of the time and averaged 142Nm on the chart 131Nm sailed distance each day over the first 10 days. It was pretty uncomfortable and wet all over ILLAWONG for the whole trip which took 20 days to do 2600Nm. One rogue wave hit us and ripped attachment points out of one of the lee cloths, bent a stantion and the cockpit railing in a bit, ripped off 2/3 of the turnsnaps holding the dodger on and washed away a few bits and pieces that were under the dodger at the time, and managed to put a couple of bucket loads of water through the dorade vents onto Phil while he was sleeping. Except for that one time the inside of ILLAWONG was always warm and dry so though it was tiring, and felt like we were driving along bunny hopping the clutch, we still ate and slept and did not get seasick.
It took us 7 weeks to get to Perth via Christmas Island so we guess that in taking 7 weeks to get to Rodrigues Island via Christmas Island is OK. Also we did not have to do too much excess milage leaving as we could sail the direct course and not weave all over the place so we actually covered twice the miles leaving Perth as we did heading for Perth for the same time.
Engine problems again, Phil checked the oil on the way and found it mixed with water so had to do an oil change immediately and then the next time we ran the engine it filled with water again and so did another oil change but that was the last of the oil and could not change the filter as had already run out of them also. We had also being pumping the salt water intake dry before we shut down due to a leaking water pump and open a valve allowing the exhaust to drain before it reaches the manifold incase water was forced into the exhaust while sailing downwind. After we arrived at Rodrigues we finally figured out that while the engine is running it is filling up with salt water. Ripped the exhaust system off altogether to see if there were any blockages that could cause the water to back up the exhaust but it turned out that the major problem was the leaking salt water pump had deteriorated to the extent that both the water and oil seals leaked, one of two side by side bearings had collapsed and this allowed salt water to get to the power take off on the engine and then straight into the sump. To compound confusion Phil ran the engine without salt water connected at all and each time the oil went grey and its level rose after each running but the fresh water level stayed the same. In frustration the head was ripped off, the head gasket replaced, an electric salt water pump we have on board was installed to act as the salt water cooling pump with a valve to control water flow for different engine revs and everything then appeared to be normal but had to be very careful that the engine did not stop while the electric pump was running otherwise we would have filled the engine up with water. In all this took at least 6 oil changes, filters and alot of head scratching and we wonder what other damage has now been done internally. At least with the winds in this part of the world it is not a problem as we do not use the motor much anyhow.
Arrived in Rodrigues first thing in the morning and tied off to a tug boat while we waited for the officials to come down to clear us in. This was fine except that as the tide came in and the wind picked up it got rather rough with the tug trying to go one way and us the other. The Customs guys were very late in getting down to us and just after they went below to start the formalities the forward mooring line snapped and we immediately lost control of the bow as it swung away forcing the windvane into the tug side. Had to hurriedly tell the customs guys that they were going for a motor, start the engine, untie the stern line and get away from the tug before we did any major damage. Motored around the harbour with our sick engine and back onto the tug but at least the Customs clearance was then handled real promptly as they wanted to go and we wanted to get out onto our anchor where it was safe if not real comfortable.
Rodrigues is off the beaten track for yachts as well as tourists and is really nice and the people here were very friendly and welcoming to us. Can not buy a lot but there is a weekly market at 0600 every Saturday for fresh veg & meat, also coke in the supermarkets and cheap fresh bread daily so we were happy if we forgot about the repairs required on ILLAWONG. Lost some weight during the trip so Phil could fit into his cloths again. Going for walks on Rodrigues, which is of volcanic origin, is good exercise and our legs were getting used again instead of sitting around driving everywhere. It was nice to be able to just walk out of town along a road and then just head off over the hills, following our noses, stop for a picnic beside a stream with a view around most of the island and then eventually find a road and get a bus back. We also got the fridge fixed here for what we felt like was a exorbitant amount of money even after we beat him down from 4000MR to 2500MR (23 - $US). A local told us that the repair guy was from Mauritius and it was much more expensive there especially for tourists and was sorry as a Rodriguan would not try to rip off a visitor in that manner. After a year of not working it was nice to have cold drinks and to be able to store some meat and milk again. We bought ice when we could or used a Peltier electronic unit in the fridge while sailing to at least keep things slightly cool but it ran 100% of the time so was very power hungry compared to our proper fridge. While there we generally tried to buy food at smaller stores and one we frequented the most gave Julia a bottle of pure Rodriquan honey as a gift when we said good bye to them which was a lovely gesture considering how poor Rodrigues is. It is a very poor cousin in comparison to Mauritius.
So after 4 weeks we were off to Mauritius with a real nice first days sail that got progressively worse over the next couple of days but did 125Nm/day again basically down wind and as it had been calm for a week the seas were quite OK. It was certainly windy and rough as we turned around the top string of islands till we got behind Mauritius then just drifted down the island waiting for the sun to come up so we could enter Port Louis, the only harbour. Of course, with the sun came the wind down off the mountains so we had to motor sail the last stretch. Tied up on an old granary dock where we sat all the day awaiting one official or another. Eventually Phil went and rounded up the last one, Customs, as we really did not want to stay on that dock fearing all sorts of creepy crawlies coming aboard overnight. Five o'clock was still light enough for us to go into The Caudan, a quite extensive, new, flash waterfront area of shops and more shops, eateries, restaurants, hotel, cinemas, casino and an area for yachts with water and power facilities but no actual pens which meant rafting up to another boat already tied to the wall. Three yachts that were at Rodrigues were tied up plus another couple of yachts we had seen in passing in the last couple of years. Julia found it pleasant to be able to just step ashore whenever she wanted but the constant parade of people past the boat, stopping to peer in or to chat is a bit wearing after a while.
The rest of Port Louis at least is authentic and interesting as well as busy with people everywhere. Mauritius is a independent republic, which also governs Rodrigues, with its own currency. It seems most prices are government controlled to some degree as they are the same in each stall in the very large covered veggie market and equally as big meat market where here they do sell chicken, Rodrigues they didn't. The small supermarkets, hardware, wholesale stores and shops in general, specially in the older part of town, are crammed full of stock with very narrow aisles so it takes a while to see everything. The newer shops have glass in front so you can window shop. Quite a bit more lively than Rodrigues. Took a bus up to the plateau in the middle of the island to visit a huge supermarket "Continent" similar to ones we had seen in Europe and one in Malaysia. It's the only place we found any hard cheese, Edam and Gouda, etc. from various countries, and also fresh milk but only in little plastic bags which we did not feel inclined to carry back on the bus. Everywhere else has only the U.H.T. milk, so Phil is still carrying his 3 boxes of Australian Weeties until we can find something better.
Then we got the flu and spent the next week in bed or lazing on the boat. We were told that many people on the island had this "Sydney" flu for up to 3 weeks, so guess we can't complain about our 1 week. Enforced rest if nothing else. Julia missed out on doing anything special for her birthday. In the end she made some brownies and we whipped up the little box of U.H.T. cream, made some perk coffee. Ate half the brownies and three-quarters of the cream in one sitting. When we were both feeling better we moved out from the zoo and motored up to the north end of the island to Grand Bay. Quite well protected here and calm altho more windy than Port Louis. Many tourists - water skiing, para-gliding, winds surfers, hobiecats, all zig-zagging past where we are anchored.
Grand Bay was taken up with maintenance with repairing the dinghy while it is on deck and dry, putting new fibreglass matting along the spine and patching holes, a couple of good coats of antifouling then we could go ashore. Poor thing had a few er, rough, shall we say, landings in the horrible surf on Christmas Island. Also bought some bearings and seals for the salt water pump on the engine cooling system and was able to repair that while here. Washed the genoa sail which needed repair (blew it's seam out while on the way to Rodrigues) and we wanted to wash all the salt out of it before sewing and gumming up the sewing machine mechanisms. Part of the repairs to the genoa was on the front edge where it rubs against the second forestay Phil fitted in Perth but that will need further attention in the future, something a bit stronger than what is now on board. Apart from that the second forestay is a real bonus for working the jib and genoa as now both can stay hanked on all the time and we just drop one sail and pull the other up so alot less working up on the foredeck. We made a new waterproof bimini while in Perth and also covered the dodger and it is so much nicer to be able to go out into the cockpit without getting wet when it rains. Also put in drain hole and fibreglassed inside cockpit lockers which get flooded with water while sailing and could not drain (except leak into the boat unfortunately). Other little odd bits and pieces get worked on and slowly and gradually the work list doesn't noticeably shorten but things get done. There are always many things not on the list - that would make it too depressing.
Mauritius is relatively flat in the northern half, high mountains in the central/south around a high plateau on which there are quite a number of towns. Tourism seems to be growing with most visitors coming from France or Reunion which is a French outer territory governed and subsidized from Paris. As in Europe, everyone goes on holidays for the month of August and so they come to poor neighbouring Mauritius where their money goes further. A frequent, regular passenger ferry runs between the 2 islands, as well as the "Mauritius Pride" a passenger ferry/container/cargo/etc ship which we also saw in Rodrigues. Quite a number of Reunion yachts are also visiting and they tell us that Reunion is very expensive in comparison to Mauritius as well as the harbour being reconstructed leaving only a small, oily, dirty area in which to tie-up.
There is a good bus service here so went off exploring the island. Went 3/4hour by bus to visit the Botanical Gardens at Pamplemousses. Started back in 1735, a few different horticulturists have had their hands in over the years, importing trees and plants from all over the world, most of which are named. A stream runs through the place (an offshoot of the irrigation system for the surrounding sugar plantations). Saw a pond of giant Victoria regia water lily, native to the Amazon region with a few flowers both white and red, also the "famous" Talipot palms which flower after 40-60 years and then die. The flower is not necessarily spectacular being a creamy, feathery thing way, way up high, but it is HUMONGOUS. After putting all that effort into a once in a lifetime event it has a real reason to be so exhausted as to die. It was a lovely day and thoroughly pleasant wandering around. Afterwards went for a walk around town which wasn't very much, but then had to wait 1-1/4 hours for the bus back. The road system in the country is quite good, the motorway, in some places 4 lanes, which stretches from Grand Bay (north coast) via Port Louis (west coast & only port) to Mahebourg (south coast) where the airport is situated. There are many, MANY buses going just about everywhere, but in Port Louis there are two bus stations, north and south, with a fair hike in between. Went for a trip around the island. Caught the express from Grand Bay to Port Louis and then a regular bus to Centre du Flacq on the east coast, quite a nice trip across the northern plain mostly thru sugar cane fields with a few market gardens thrown in for a change. To stretch our legs, took a short walk around part of the town which was a lot bigger than expected. Next went south, right along the coast, could see shoreline but with the fringing reef a fair way off it looked like a lake with huge breakers seen as small wavelets on the outside of the reef. The fringe reef extends for most of the way around the island, quite evident on the north and east with only large patches here and there on the west. Got off before Old Grand Port and walked but were not able to get far away off the main road so was not that enjoyable and anyway you can't see very far walking beside sugar cane 2m high. Had picnic lunch in a lovely quiet park overlooking a wide river mouth before carrying on toward Mahebourg. There, we caught a bus straight back to Port Louis which took us up onto the higher central plateau but even so the hills, which look so high from the coastal plains, still seemed distant and the only impressive thing about some was their shape being quite conical with a real point on top. Circumnavigated the whole island in a day - very pleasant too. Not much wild life altho there are some national parks which we did not visit, but some of the small birds are very colourful with brilliant red or yellow head and body with dark brown speckles on the back.
In Grand Bay watched the locals race there pirogues, 15 feet long, slim, locally made boats with tall bamboo mast and boom, very colourful sails (main and jib), 8 man crew. First weekend was really windy altho the water in the bay itself was reasonably calm. 4 boats started, only 2 finished - one sank (had to be towed to shore) and the other was dismasted. 1 guy steering, 1 bailing full time, 2 hanging off guy ropes around the mast to keep it in place (no rigging) and the others moving from side to side as ballast, sometimes hanging way out to keep upright. Not our idea of sailing. 2nd race, 13 started but they ran out of time as there was very little wind however the crews seem to be having a really good time.
The fridge died again which really pissed us off but decided to leave it until South Africa so that we might have some warranty time if needed and hopefully get a better job done there. So it's back to carrying ice again. The blocks we put in at Christmas Island cracked the bottom/wall joints presumably allowing water down into the insulation so that is another project to be done.
Had a magic trip across to South Africa from Mauritius. Left Sept 16th after finishing with all authorities surprisingly quickly and then spending the rest of our local money. Drifted down the west coast of Mauritius which we had not seen at all, where dolphins came to say goodbye and wish us well. Good winds across to Reunion island arriving off the northeast corner early afternoon and sailed along the north coast, just browsing. Night had fallen by the time we reached the west coast and the lights were like fairy lights in a black night. A plane came over the top of us, then banked away, circled and landed and from our viewpoint it looked as if it was on the water, the runway being right close on the coast due to the hilly nature of the rest of the island. A lot of the higher slopes were permanently clouded in, so in some ways, we were glad that we had not stopped there as sightseeing or hiking would not have been good. We saw those lights all the next night also as there was very little wind to carry us away so we just drifted along. Saw a whale a little distance off, too far for a photo, but it was nice to see. After a front passed over bringing wind and rain we were able to get going again in rough seas under cloudy skies for the next few days. Passing around the bottom of Madagascar where two ocean currents meet was a wild and woolly night, running before the wind with main sail reefed right down plus the jib. Set a few records, for us, in this area, 9 nautical miles in one hour, 47 miles in 6 hours, 92 miles in 12 hours and 153 miles in 24 hours. We had a real good wind from behind plus the currents helping us along - what a wonderful birthday present for Phil. The next day wind and waves calmed down substantially and we only did 55 miles in 24 hours, most of which was the currents doing. Next 2 days, beautiful sailing, all sails up even the spinnaker, sunny, calm seas doing 5-6 knots (boring!!!). Then we had another cold front pass over and it was back to high winds lumpy seas but moving along pretty steadily. Had a freighter try to run us down as we crossed the 28 Latitude and we had even seen him from afar. He had been steaming south and Phil noted his lights just on the horizon. a while later noted that only one light was visible and assumed that he had gone further below the horizon so only the tall rear light could be seen. a while later noted that that one light was still there but suddenly realized that there was also a green light and that he had turned onto the 28 Latitude to pass south of Madagascar. Did another of those rapid tacks, on with the motor and out of his way. Angrily called on the radio and after quite a while a dozy voice asked who was calling. Asked if he had seen us and the reply was "Yes, we see you now"!!! which was a great help. They turned onto a new course across the general flow of shipping in this area and had not even had a proper look to see if there we any dangers. We understand how freighters collide with idiot drivers in control. The variable weather conditions persisted over the last 3 days with the winds starting in the north, veering thru west to south, east and finally back to the north with the resultant sloppy mish-mash of waves. Had us thinking how these conditions would be affecting the very strong Aghulus current which runs southward just off the African coast. This weather is for the birds - tropic birds, terns, shearwaters, storm petrels, a pintado petrel (really intricate black and white feather patterns on the wings) which followed us for the next 2 days, and we saw our first albatross, the smallest one of it's kind but never the less huge in comparison to the other birds out there. The last night, midnight, the wind director went on strike for 2 hours causing us to really get suspicious about getting a southerly blow at the wrong time. It was too uncomfortable just to sit so we motored for the time. However, the northerly picked up again and, in fact, the dreaded current, once we finally got into it, was a piece of cake, helping us along southwards. Again, just after dawn, the wind died down and our hair stood up - we were only about 15 miles from Richards Bay. We were getting really paranoid by this time so started the motor again. The wind started to come in from the south, the sky cleared of its rain and storm clouds to a nice sunny blue, the barometer started to drop, oh boy, were we ever packing it. Once that strong southerly buster comes in its a real problem to get south to the harbour. At that stage we were actually able to still sail south and in 3/4 hour that wind just switched off and started up again from the north. We put up as much sail as possible and when that wind died down we ran the motor - there was just no way we were going to go slow at that stage. Well, we finally arrived, tied up in the marina and what do you know, in half an hour the wind picked up from the south west and blew hard, with thunderstorms and rain, for the next two days. We were both very relieved to be tied up. There are not many protected places along this coast and we did not cherish having to run north before a southerly wind especially when we were only 15Nm from harbour after doing a 15 day crossing, we just wanted to get in and relax.
We spent 2 months in Richards Bay. Originally went there to do maintenance on ILLAWONG and alot of yachties had said how great and cheap it was. Well we found it to be awkward to get around with no bus service, hard to buy things, the marina for hauling out was expensive, they only allowed wet sandblasting which is pretty useless on a steel hull when you are trying to minimize rust not maximise it and the crane arrangement was pretty chintzy. Richards Bay has no down town it is basically a big mall, new commercial harbour (loading coal!!!) with well protected marina and tourists. Friends from Chagos, who have been here for 1 year and bought a VW combi, took us on a day trip to Umfolozi game park where we had a picnic lunch and took 4 rolls of film. Saw 16 different animals, no big cats or elephant tho. About 25 white rhino, generally in groups of 3 or 4, one group walked across the road just in front of us. Many herds of impala, nyala, zebra, wildebeest, quite a few giraffe, kudu, monkeys, baboons, cape buffalo, wild pigs, warthogs, couple of water buck, even saw a monitor lizard. There is a large river running thru the park and another as it's border so saw crocodiles, turtles, spoonbills and storks. Of course there were the inevitable kites and vultures, but also very colourful weavers and flycatchers and many other birds that we could not identify. One of the more interesting animals was the dung beetle. Gets right to work in a fresh pat and rolls a ball about 1.5" dia. which it then trundles back home using hinds legs to roll the ball along while running backwards on it's front legs with it's nose on the ground, not being able to see where it's going. These beetles are only about 1" long. Weird to describe but even funnier to watch. It then plants its eggs in the ball so that the young have something to eat when they hatch out. A quite necessary link in the chain of nature, no doubt. Little things amuse!
Took the opportunity to go on a week holiday by sea to Inhaca Island, Mozambique with Jim and Joy on M.V."Two Jays" on it's maiden voyage. A nice big motor launch, Trawler hull, 47 ft long, with steering/navigation station, lounge/dining/ kitchenette area and back deck (with freezer incorporated) on upper part and cabins below with central engine room housing 2 huge engines, generator and tanks holding 5 ton of diesel (unfortunately the engine room had not been soundproofed, made sleeping down below a bit deafening while underway). They also had the outer shell built and were finishing off the interior themselves. Jim had been so busy that he had not had a chance to study all the instrumentation so that was Phil's main job which he enjoyed immensely, tinkering with the radar/GPS/navigation/chart plotter integrated system. That type of system has its good and bad points but if the screen fails then the whole thing is useless. Both Phil and Jim at different times pressed a wrong button and had us turned around in no time flat. Phil sorted his out pretty quick during the day but Jim fiddled in the middle of a pitch black night when we were close to shore, getting us all in a panic as we couldn't see anything, in the end we just had to head east away from land (that was the only thing we could be sure of) until Phil could get it sorted out again. It wasn't a long trip, just overnight, so we arrived during daylight which was very good as we had to go in amongst coral to the anchorage. The anchor chain had been marked but the marks had not been recorded anywhere and consequently we did not have enough chain out and when the wind came the anchor dragged as the boat has a lot of windage. We then moved to a different place behind the main island in order to supposedly get more protection, didn't exactly work as we rolled badly all night but this time we didn't drag at least. We were all up during night, stuffing things into cupboards to stop rattles and so on. Went swimming (with the 2-3 knot current) between the boats or snorkelled over the reef which was very disappointing, walks ashore, checked out the marine museum and generally had a lazy time. We stayed up there for 7 days due to bad weather. On the trip back the weather deteriorated but with the stabilizers working the boat was remarkably stable. You are so isolated from the weather that when the wind changed from a SW to a NE Phil did not even notice till Jim bought it to his attention. The whole trip was a very big learning curve for Jim and Joy and it was beneficial to have people with some experience on board with them and for us too in a different way.
Everyone said don't go to Durban or if you do be very, very careful. We enjoyed the town. Tied up to the international dock, more or less right downtown, we could go shopping when we wanted without having to organise a lift with someone else, there were marine chandleries right there, Phil was able to get some more glasses at a reasonable price. Certainly there were places that we did not go or turned away from if we felt uncomfortable. Spent Christmas in Durban. Had our normal baked dinner, chicken and Ham, but invited 2 other couples to join us. An American couple from Seattle who are going around in 2 years, she must go back to teaching for 3 years before she can take early retirement and start cruising in earnest. The other were a Swiss couple, he does most of the sailing and she joins him for long passages and/or places she likes, otherwise she flys home to the family. However, they had been down to the Patagonia area for 2 years and had both enjoyed their time and the scenery there. Gave us some pointers, places to watch out for and ideas on anchoring and surviving in general down there. They have been sailing for around 13 years, about the world, haven't quite got all the way around yet. Very interesting couple. He had done a practical course in storm sailing where they go out into heavy weather and practice different methods of coping with storm conditions. This training he put to good use when caught in that storm off New Zealand a few years ago when a number of other boats had to be rescued.
Wednesday before Christmas we spent all afternoon checking out of Durban, indicating we wanted to leave on the following Sunday, as all the offices were going to be closed until the next Monday. We had 36 hours thereafter to actually leave or else go thru the whole process again (one boat had checked out 3 times before finally leaving). However, the weather was kind to us and co-operated. Left very early Sunday morning heading first due south to get out into the Aghulus current, and then southwest following the 200 metre line about 12-15 miles out from the coast, motor-sailing all day and night in light, varying winds of south-west to south. That was until the engine died. Changed our working front sails to the genoa and half an hour later the wind came around to the Northeast. In the Aghulas current we really flew along knocking off 10Nm/hr hour after hour and sailing up to 11.5Kn over the ground at times. New Records!!!!
We rounded the corner into Algoa Bay early morning and spoke over the radio to another boat in Port Elizabeth who arranged for the National Sea Rescue Institute to standby for assistance. The wind followed us around into the Bay but got progressively lighter during the morning, we must have had the current with us a little still as we continued to do up to 6 knots in light winds. Called Harbour Control when we were 5 miles out and advised we needed assistance, then called again at 1 mile off and N.S.R.I. boat came out at that time. Phil had predicted that when we arrived at the harbour the wind would pick up and/or a freighter would be entering or leaving. Well a freighter was leaving and in order to get us into harbour before that we had to be taken in tow while still outside in fairly calm conditions. That was very competently done by the captain and 4 helpers. Turning the corner into the harbour, up came the strong wind from directly on the nose, no way would we have been able to tack our way into the narrow entrance in time, but they were able to tow us in at 7 knots. Once inside we cast off the tow and they came alongside towards our aft and tied us very securely so that they could manoeuvre us into the marina. That was very competently done. Now they explained that they were going to put us into a slot beside a catamaran which meant the tug would come in behind the cat and the dock would be on our other side, close to the entrance of the marina. 2 of the N.S.R.I. crew came aboard Illawong to help with ropes. We managed to go around all the tight corners (a bit too fast for Julia's liking, she was on the tiller) and came up into position. The tug slammed into reverse, slewing the boats around with the wash of the propellers, the wind blowing side on was still quite strong, and the ropes holding the 2 boats together were not let go quickly enough. That was a TOTAL fiasco. We managed to get a line from the bow to people waiting on the pontoon dock but completely lost the back end which drifted down across the next double bay. Some of the people on the dock came running around to the next pontoon and we were able to throw the aft rope to them. They were then able to swing the aft end into the bay (3 down from the original) while slowly paying out the forward rope and letting the bow float out, until we were far enough in to get another rope secured from the centre of the boat, then cast off the forward rope and bring it down onto our dock. Tho there was much shouting and jumping up and down both onboard Illawong and on the docks, the people on the docks were very good and adapted well to the changing situation. We were truly thankful for them being there. The N.S.R.I. people, who are all volunteers, just need a bit more training and practice. Anyway, we got in, there was no damage to the catamaran, the docks or Illawong, N.S.R.I. got a bit more experience and every one happy. Just a few more grey hairs but that is not new.
A valve spring broke which resulted in the rocker arm breaking rather than bending a valve or the push rod. Of course we actually have a spare valve and spare push rod with us, but not the broken bits, but at least Phil does not have to pull the head off the engine again. Should be able to replace the valve spring easily enough in situ as with the piston at the top of its stroke the valve can only move about 2mm. Luckily the valve did not drop into the engine or some real good damage could have been done. Ran the engine after we got in and everything else seems OK.
We are both well, Port Elizabeth has turned out to be the best stop so far in SA with a much more relaxed atmosphere, no armed guards around every corner. Everyone is really friendly and helpful so will enjoy our stop here and get a bit more maintenance done to fill in our time while waiting for our engine parts to arrive from the company we found in Singapore.

1997-12-31T15:01:00.000-08:00

YEAR FIVE - THE ILLAWONG CHRONICLE
1997 - Crossing The Equator - 3x : India to Australia via Singapore

As you will have noticed, you, and everyone else, did not get a letter for 1997, we are just a little bit late. We ended up the year by sailing to Perth, West Australia to have Christmas with our families. Consequently we did not take the chance to sit down and write.

As mentioned in CHAPTER FOUR in early 1997 we went travelling in India. Our trip inland, starting towards the end of January, for 3 weeks was good and bad. Before we left we bought a booklet called "Trains at a Glance" which is a condensed timetable covering nearly all train travel in India and with this you try to plan your trip. However, weather must also be taken into account and we quickly determined that our original plan was not possible. We figured on doing quite a bit of travelling by night sleeping on the trains, so we could enjoy the towns during the day. Being so cold, even with 2 - 3 layers of clothes, plus light coat, plus small airline blanket each, curtailed that idea which meant a major change in proposed route. All trains in India have tourist quotas so we had no problems getting on the trains we wanted if they were running but over the last 2 years in northern India the railways have been upgrading from narrow to metre gauge with the inherent disruptions to traffic. The buses were atrocious, mostly old and rickety with very little padding or suspension, the drivers often quite suicidal with their passing tactics, stopping many times along the way at small towns or coffee houses making a gruelling trip that much longer. Most places can be reached by train but some buses have to be used so after some experience we decided on two things, one to minimize bus travel and two, to only travel during the day so that hopefully the oncoming traffic will realize that they are about to crash head on into a bus and will themselves drive off the road to avoid killing too many people at once. The theory makes you feel a bit better and maybe it worked as we were never quite run into the ditch. Altho the fastest anything actually went on the road was about 80kph and generally around 60kph so perhaps it was just more scary than dangerous.
We left Bombay by overnight train to Amedabad and then caught a bus to Udaipur. By then were we ever glad to get onto our feet and walk everywhere. Udaipur we found very pleasant, not so big that we couldn't find our way around. So layback and leisurely that we stayed 4 days. Hiked up a nearby hill for an overview of the whole area. The palace inside the walled town, nestles beside a lake which has been enlarged by a masonry wall constructed around 1560, now the whole town expands way beyond the original walls. The palace was clean and well maintained with quite a number of rooms available for viewing, the mosaic decorations of tiny coloured mirrors or tiles pieced together into a scene or animals were quite impressive. Part of the building has been converted to a luxury hotel. Visited the museum, puppet show and live performance where a young man balanced 6 traditional water urns on his head, another act was a lady with 2" round cymbals strapped to arms, legs and feet which, in time to music, she would hit with another two twirling on short ropes held in her hands - she was very good and quite energetic. January 26 was also their 50th anniversary "Republic Day" so went along to the stadium to watch a morning marching parade, partakers from many different groups of school children right up to military, together with various bands, followed by a few different floats and later traditional dancing. A day side trip took us to Eklingi to view a Shiva temple. The site as a whole, would have been very interesting but the small area to which we were allowed was very crowded. Had lunch by a lake and were molested by a cow who wanted our lunch. Not to upset the sacred being we offered it some orange peel which it readily devoured much to Julia's amazement. We've since noted that cows in India eat anything. After lunch we hiked the few km's out to Nagda where there are Jain "Mother" and "Daughter-in-Law" temples out in the green countryside and much more impressive. The intricate architecture and painstaking carvings inside and out are really striking. During the walk out and back, saw a few Langur monkeys which abound all over India. Also visited a temple under reconstruction, the work being carried out by around a dozen women all wearing their colourful saris, digging trenches and carrying stones in metal containers on their heads, of course, being directed by a man who had the heavy job of telling the ladies where to place everything. This was a common sight at road works, laying water pipes, etc and always the ladies wore their colourful saris. Rock fill was moved at road work sites by a line of woman passing metal containers filled with rocks and sand from one to the other as in a bucket brigade. Hard work just to watch let alone earn their 20-30Rs/day salary (about US$1). The historic sites in India are fairly modern, unlike Egypt and Turkey, only dating around the 11-13 centuries, and in quite a lot of instances pretty run down.
Our next stop, by train, was to Jaipur, the Red City as it is called because of the red sandstone used in most of the buildings, Palace and Palace of Winds. Jaipur is a must see in all the tourist info and in general was a waste of time, it could have been nice but was so dirty and non-maintained and with so little access to rooms in the Palace that we were quite disappointed though the "Palace of Winds", a five story stepped facade of windows where the royal ladies could observe, unobtrusively, the street happenings while catching the breeze was certainly novel. Really, the only thing that made Jaipur worthwhile was the hotel in which we stayed, The DIGGI Palace - converted from part of a Rajah's (Ruler's) palace, the major part still being lived in by the Raj. Room prices ranged from quite reasonable to very high and breakfast was not as cheap as it could be but the grounds were really wonderful, green and shaded and after a day wandering about in the dusty, touristy city was nice to stop and relax. The astronomy observatory, built around 1730, was intriguing with its sculptures for measuring positions of stars, altitudes and azimuths, calculating eclipses and a monstrous sundial.
Amber a city just outside Jaipur was much more interesting, the Palace in much better condition with more to see. The grounds were across a small river with small ponds constructed off it, gazebos and a lot of greenery around, monkeys galore playing in the grounds. If unfit, could take an elephant ride to the entrance gate which was a bit of a climb up a hill. On the walk up to the main gate Julia had a close encounter with a monkey wanting some bakshee, it could smell our lunch which was in our backpacks. In the Palace, whole rooms were finished with mirror inlays in various patterns while in other rooms the walls were covered with inlays of coloured glass varying from just patterns to complete scenes of wildlife, peacocks and general everyday life. It was really quite impressive and writing about this makes me think that we saw a lot more than we felt we did at the time of travelling.
From Jaipur we caught a bus to a bird sanctuary at Bharatpur which we very nearly did not see as the bus went straight past. We expected to go through a town near the bird park and were keeping a eye out, but the bus bypassed it. Luckily we asked a Indian beside us where the town was and he said we had just past it. Yell to conductor who looked at his bill of lading and I guess swore in Indian as he stopped the bus, turned around and took us back to the park. Stayed in a private house with 3 bed & breakfast rooms just near the park and had home cooked meals each night. The young guy who looked after us was off to Jaipur to go to university shortly. His girlfriend was already studying there and they planned to get married after they had both finished their courses but that depended on whether the girls parents arranged a husband for her before she finished her studies because then they would have to get married immediately. They are not from compatible castes and he is positive his parents would not agree with the marriage so their only choice was to get married and then write home asking permission to come home with the new bride. If not allowed they are completely cut off from family and have to make it on their own. In India family is everything but alot of the younger generation are bucking a bit. Of course the caste system is completely outlawed in India, But.
Bharatpur was very enjoyable. Here we saw the huge, white siberian and saurus cranes standing around 1.5m high. Saw many different types of water birds, brilliant coloured king-fisher and other birds, various ducks, oh, just all sorts, as well as vultures, either nesting or with young. We had taken our binoculars specially for here and had a really wonderful time bird watching. There are at least 328 kinds of birds living or passing through this park, 117 are migratory. It used to be a Maharajahs duck shooting preserve but in 1964 became a protected area, today there are 80 types of ducks in the park. We hired bikes but the tracks towards the back, drier, wildlife areas were quite rough and Phil got a puncture. Walked to the back gate of the park and the guard there took Phil and bike to a small rural village (mud brick houses with thatched roofs) to the bike repair shop to fix. Bike and moped repair is a full time business in India and located in every village no matter how small or isolated. Off we went and had lunch and by then the tire was flat again and shortly after that Julia got a puncture so ended up walking for alot of the day - didn't bother with them on the second day.
Still by bus, we stopped at Fatipur Sikri a city built by the Mogul invaders (northern mid east / east china area) then abandoned after 16 years because there was not enough water to support it. Great forward planning but it left a very intact palace, elephant stables, water works, mint, treasury and other city buildings that has lasted quite well for 6-700 years and what's more were well maintained and clean.
Bus to Agra to check out the Red Fort and The Taj Mahal. Both of these were well worth seeing. The Taj is certainly an impressive building but it makes you wonder at the money spent to bury a body. This was not even enough as Emperor Shah Jahan, who build the Taj, was planning to build an exact replica in black marble next door for his own mausoleum but his son decided he wanted some inheritance so he deposed his father before he spent everything. The fine inlay work at the Taj with precious and semi precious stones was really incredible and so finicky, also the marble work, carving etc was really outstanding. We were glad to leave Agra though and head for Khajuraho as the taxi drivers and rickshaw drivers were aggressive as hell. The drivers kept calling themselves Indian helicopters but because they were really persistent and annoying Phil called one an Indian Mosquito to which he took offense but at least left us alone.
Because Phil got confused and bought tickets on the slow train to Khajuraho, we decided to stop overnight in Gwalior and this revived our spirits as the people here were really friendly and helpful. The Fort/Palace was really worth seeing with some pretty whimsical carvings all over the walls and doorways. Outside all around the fort were blue tiles with yellow glass inlays of DUCKS walking. The fort was built on top of a ridge that allowed you to see for miles. It was really delightful so we were glad of the stop over. Here also were many different temples with carvings all over that we enjoyed looking at. Walked for miles that day and that night after dinner went to buy a couple of cakes for dessert and ended up going to the shop owners house for coffee as his daughter had given strict instructions that any foreigners that come into the shop are to be brought home for her to meet.
Next day off to Khajuraho by bus. (You will have noticed how often we have managed to avoid travelling by bus!!!) Previously we had travelled on the government Silverline deluxe???? buses and after repeatedly asking for the time that this bus left we were assured that if we were at the bus station at 8am the next morning we could buy a ticket on this bus. We get to the bus station and yes the bus is due in shortly. Up rolls this dilapidated regular bus. We go and check and yes this is the bus we want. What about the Silverline bus, we ask. Oh, that leaves at 6.30am we are told. At this we stomp our feet, utter a few swear words and go and get aboard. Getting information in India was a real problem. Even worse than previous outings. Tourist offices were pretty useless and asking directions is akin to bashing your head against the wall. The answer to a question will generally be Yes even when they mean No because they don't want to disappoint you. If you think a bus should stop at ABC then the bus will even if it wont. Directions to a hotel can get you really lost as even if they have never heard of the place you will get told how to get there. What few taxis we have caught have not been that much better as you will end up at the hotel that gives them the best commission not the one you are looking for. Can be interesting and even fun at times but not while carrying a loaded back pack. In Jaipur the Diggi Palace refuses to pay commission so getting there by taxi can be a problem, one of the reasons we like to walk is we know where we have been if not where we are going.
Anyway enough digression, off to Khajuraho, our luggage is placed on top of the bus in a rack and we manage to get a seat right up front so we get a good view of the suicidal drivers coming to get us. For the next 280km, 10 hrs we jarred and thumped our way to Khajuraho knowing that we would have to come back most of the way in the same manner. No trains to Khajuraho, buses and planes only. We have time, not money, so only buses and anyway if the bus breaks down it doesn't really matter. On the way back we got a puncture in one of the back tires but as we had 2 per side that was OK we had a spare so didn't bother to stop, much more important to get to meet the train on time. Travelling in a country where people believe in reincarnation can be a nerve wracking experience at times. Khajuraho was really good and the temples were worth the trip in/out. Here there are Hindu and Jain temples which are different aspects of the Hindu religion. The Jain Temples are the ones well known for their erotic sculptures but that is only a small part of the whole context of the sculptors giving scenes from all aspects of life. The main temple group are in a lovely park setting and we really enjoyed wandering around here and relaxing and taking our time to see as much as we could. These temples are something very different from other areas of the world that we have travelled and in India we see a totally different culture and way of life than we have previously experienced. Some of it not always to our liking but always interesting. Here we stayed in a new hotel all marble staircases, floors, walls etc. Very noisy we later decided but really nice and only $US4.00/night after negotiations. From Khajuraho we caught the express bus back, so we were assured, and it was, except it stopped at all the places that the regular bus stopped on the way in. Oh well.
Went to Sanchi to see some very early Buddhist temples originally built in 3rd century BC and restored around 1920. Though interesting we decided that after nearly 3 weeks we were looking forward to getting back to Illawong. Trying to organize train timetables to return to Bombay meant that one night was basically spent sleeping sitting up in the railway waiting room in order to catch a train at 3am and a stop over the next night in Bhopal (Union Carbide Disaster fame). To get money for train and hotel we had to cash travellers cheques and in India this can be rather awkward and challenging, ie, that bank was out of town and as we could not get there before closing time we ended up nearly having to sleep at the railway station again. Luckily we managed to find a friendly hotel concierge who went and cashed $US on the black market for us so we could pay for a room and get a train to Bombay at 7am the next morning. Happily arrived back in Bombay and back to Illawong again.
Had an Indian sleeping on deck at night only while we were away and this basically worked out OK except he seemed to be a little inquisitive. Didn't take anything but did a little bit of damage trying to see what was what. Everything was locked up so no real problems and he stopped anything major from happening which we doubt would have happened anyway but $US1/day insurance was worth the peace of mind. India only cost us $US10/day each while travelling so was certainly good value but the best eating out is still to be had in Bombay.
Once we were back it was into stocking up in a big way and luckily we managed to find a dry ice supplier so that we could put dry ice in our flour containers, fill with flour and get no weevils we hope. It is meant to work as carbon dioxide will not support life. The company owners were so interested in what we were doing that in the end they gave us the ice and drove us back to Illawong. We are having to stock up for a longer time than coming down the Red Sea so Illawong became very low in the water. While in Bombay we could not find a place to fill our LPG bottles so ended up buying a one burner pressure kero stove and had to use that till we got to Goa to finally fill our bottles.
We had a good stop in Bombay and though the harbour was pretty bad, dirty and not calm due to all the shipping and ferry traffic, it was interesting and the Royal Bombay Yacht Club helped make our time there very pleasant. Met some nice people and glad to be in a place where it did not matter if we ate out or not as most things are real cheap and meals enjoyable. In fact leaving was a real pain because we had been enjoying very tender fillet steak most nights on Illawong for $US2.50/Kg but guess will have to get used to normal faire again. Surprisingly at all major stops coming down the Red Sea we were able to buy pretty nice fillet steak at around $US3.00/Kg. Its a tough life.
Had a leisurely trip heading SSE down the coast to Goa, stopping each night. Usually had to motor in the morning, then the wind would pick up from the south, gradually swinging round to the west or even northwest, then die down again at sunset so the anchorages were pleasantly calm. Coastguard visited us 4 times, once at 6.30am waking us up with a continuous blare of their horn - Phil asked if they were trying to wake the dead. They did not create any problems but were just a nuisance and not friendly at all.
In Panjim the anchorage was nice and calm so could start to get ILLAWONG ready to go to sea. With the boat parts we eventually received thru DHL in Bombay we got some much needed maintenance done modifying the fresh and salt water systems. After getting caught up with mail and taxes organized for another year, we finally cleared out of India after 30 hours of running around and a week later than we planned because a dog got a bit annoyed at Phil carrying some oar wood back to the boat and nipped him on the calf muscle. This meant organising a set of rabies booster shots just in case and allowed us to delay the final stocking up till a transport strike was in full swing which rapidly raised all prices by up to 3 times, lowered the quality and made buying the quantity of fresh produce that we wanted more difficult. We managed to get our planned 30kg potatoes, 10kg green tomatoes, 20kg onions, 132 eggs, 5kg carrots, 15kg various other vegetables, some fruit, 7kg steak and ground beef and 42 bottles of coke and a carton of rum for those relaxing drinks at sunset. Illawong was pretty full by this stage, went to check out and got past the Harbour Master and Customs Clearance OK and then found that there was no Immigration Officer in Panjim. The next day caught bus to ferry to go across to Vasco the Main port and found no ferry running so then had to catch buses around the bay. During the last monsoon a major bridge was damaged and only minibuses are allowed to cross so in total after catching 9 buses and dealing with an arrogant Immigration Officer we finally got our passports stamped out of India and ready to head off. That was late on Thursday so that meant we left on a Friday.
On the Friday we had problems getting our anchor up - combined effort was needed. We discovered 3 large chunks of cement block had entwined themselves with rope, fishing line and net around the anchor chain. Phil, while in the dinghy and managing to keep out from underneath, eventually cut this all away and we got underway, except found that the motor was not working anything like normal. Stopped again behind an island, just south of the river entrance in which we had been anchored, so we could go overboard and clean the hull of any weeds, barnacles and slime that we could get off - the water was a bit cleaner there. Decided to ignore the motor to see if it would fix itself.
We had a really relaxing sail from Goa to Chagos using the genoa and/or spinnaker and main in whatever combinations worked. Generally managed around 3-4 Kns sailing when we had wind but had a number of calm days as well. In fact it was so nice to be on the move that we bypassed the Maldives completely deciding that drifting along in calm seas with light winds was very similar to being in an anchorage without having to worry about officials, clearance papers etc. We swam off Illawong most days and watched our trolling fishing lines hanging nearly straight down. Roasted by day in the sun but thoroughly enjoyed the overnight sailing with beautiful clear evenings watching Hale-Bopp Comet speed on its way while we sometimes headed for where we wanted to go and at other times got carried due west towards Africa on strong currents flowing through the deep 9, 8 and 1.5 degree channels that split the Maldivian Islands. Crossed the equator on the 24 April and hooked a good Maui Maui fish on our line but at the last minute he broke free so our hurriedly planned barbecue to celebrate fell through. Consoled ourselves with a rum & coke instead.
In all we took 19 days to do 1,370Nm and anchored in Peros Banhos atoll on a lovely sand patch between coral reefs. Here we sat for a week all alone, swimming, catching fish and exploring the atoll which was incredibly overgrown and virtually impossible to get into the centre of the island. Julia climbed a tree and got our first freshly picked coconut to drink which we mangled trying to cut open with a blunt, rusty hatchet. Got better at opening them up and started collecting the ripe ones giving freshly grated coconut with our salads.
Peros Banhos is a very large atoll so as long as the wind stayed from the west the anchorage was quite comfortable but as a low started to form looking distinctly cyclonic and the general weather very unsettled we decided to go across to Salamon Atoll 30Nm away which has 360degree protection and only a couple of miles across in size. A great down wind romp with genoa up doing 6-7kns in 20kn wind until we got just outside the atoll entrance and then it really hit. Phil had the Genoa down just seconds before the wind picked up to around 35kns and we were still going down wind at 4kns under bare poles straight by the entrance as the whole atoll completely disappeared in rain. We rapidly realized that this was not good as a 1kn current was also pushing us along past the atoll and it would be a real bitch getting back if we drifted too far east. Up went the staysail and triple reefed main as we tried to keep opposite the entrance at least. After an hour, realizing that this squall was setting in and it was getting late, we started to head to where our GPS said the entrance was but as we could not sail that close to the wind in the conditions we started the motor to get what ever help we could from it and slowly crabbed our way forward. As we got closer Phil radioed the other boats inside the atoll for an accurate GPS entrance point and was relieved to get a point that was closer to the reef than we were heading for so we felt that we could at least get across the entrance before it got too dark. Phil was up front trying to gauge the extent of the reef by where the waves did not break and Julia was steering trying to keep us moving as fast as possible as close to the wind as possible. By now the seas had had plenty of time to build up to 3-4m high towards the entrance and it was quite a ride as we turned to cross the reef one final wave picked us up and shot us thru. Certainly no room for a change of mind and a definite requirement to do it right the first time. It was a real relief to be inside. The other boats at anchor turned on their anchor lights so we could see where to go to anchor, assured by them that no coral was between us. This was not one of our favourite entrances to a coral atoll but as in flying, any landing with everything intact is a good landing. It was nice and calm the next couple of days after we arrived, typical, and the cyclone eventually formed but headed east to Australia and away from us.
When we arrived there were about 25 boats anchored together which we found to be too many so we did not get very involved, but in early June yachts departed for Madagascar leaving only 8 boats which was a much better size group, playing volley ball and every couple of weeks having a pot luck meal ashore. At low tides we went for walks across the reefs to small islands, collected shells and had a very successful time catching fish off Illawong where we were anchored. A lot of snapper, job and emperor fish plus from other yachts that troll in their dinghies outside the reef, we got tuna at times. Hermit crabs everywhere on the sea shore and thru the jungle, Coconut crabs within the jungle areas and at night walking on the island there are these huge Robber grabs that are too big to live in coconut husks any more. Body about 150mm across and legs around 450mm across. It makes you wary of walking around without shoes as they can certainly take a toe off if you put your foot wrong. Quite a lot of bird life around the islands but we were very disappointed in the coral as it is no patch on what we saw in the Red Sea in variety or colour and the number of reef fish is also a lot less but have seen quite a few turtles swimming by Illawong. When we were trolling in the dinghy outside the reef we came across a couple of huge turtles attempting to repopulate their species. One of them would have filled the dinghy completely. We also went for a swim to have a look at a small Manta Ray 2.5m wide that was feeding close to the boat but at that time he was busy and did not take much notice of us except that we think we got in his way of feeding. About an hour later Carolyn, on another boat, called to us to go swimming again as he was now interested in playing. For the next 1.5 hours we swam like crazy following him back and forth between our boats, getting right up close so that he had to fold his wing up, diving down with him and generally getting totally exhausted. It was an incredible experience and great because he was just as interested in us as we were in him. Carolyn touched him and that caused him to move out real quick but then back he came for more.
Except for the moths which seemed to eat as many of our potatoes as we did, they lasted a long time, had a disaster with the carrots but we kept some vegs like aubergines and capsicum peppers in the fridge for a few weeks before they went bad. Tomatoes were still good wrapped in newspaper for the entire trip. Eggs are ok?? smeared with vaseline but will need to experiment further there, but onions just seem to last forever. Kept fresh meat frozen for around 2 months before we ate it all. Our bottled meat lasted well also. We were out for nearly 4 months between shopping sprees and found that we had a pretty good variety of food on board but it amazed us what some of the other boats got up to with smoking fish, making smoked tuna pate and biscuits which one day we may try as it certainly tasted great for snacks. We made heart of palm salads when given some heart of palm, pickled fish along with a good supply of Julia's baking, the best chocolate cake in Chagos, good bread, scones, pikelets, muffins & pies, Pasta A La Mer for lunch and fish Vindaloo (Indian hot dishes) for dinner. We used the one burner pressure kero stove to extend our propane bottles, having breakfast in the cockpit on the nice days. They were few and far between for a lot of our stay with strong SE winds varying from 15kns to 35kns. At least all our tanks were kept full of fresh water including the dinghy if we did not go out to empty it before it sank. If we were lucky we got one clear day each week but not even that was guaranteed. "Brumby" have been there 3 yrs in a row and this year was not at all what they had in previous visits. With all the wind we got and the little sun our failing batteries kept just ahead of the game. Much cloudier here than anywhere else we had been so if we didn't have the wind we would need to run the engine around every 10 days.
Our engine seemed to be developing a more serious fuel problem as after Bombay, instead of just dropping to idle every now and then, it dropped and stopped altogether. As we thought that our diesel in our main tank was really quite clean and in experimenting, removed the primary Raycor filter to see if motor ran more consistently. Half way down to Chagos it would not run at all and on changing the fine secondary filter we found it completely dirty with black sludge so we put the Raycor back into service. Engine ran better but at low revs only. At Peros Banhos Phil connected up our second tank straight to the engine which had clean fuel in it and replaced the fine filter again and now things run fine but will not accept very much load so when we motor-sailed into Salamon we could only rev to about 1600rpm max. In Salamon Atoll Phil checked the injectors and one made no difference to the motor so after cleaning and replacing, replacing with another boats injector and finally doing a compression check we have a 2 cylinder motor only with the third injector disabled. We found we could motor ok as long as we turned the alternator off but because of the engine not working properly we could not sail around to the different islands on the Chagos Bank so we ended up staying much longer than we planned at the Bodum Island anchorage. Chagos which we extended to Critical Hardware Always Goes Outof Service, what with the number of mechanical problems that a lot of the boats had, us included. The seriousness of the problem is of course, inversely proportional to the distance to the repair/parts supplies.
In late June Phil finally got Julia off the Volley Ball court on a nice day to leave the main anchorage at Bodum Island. We needed some calm weather so that we could retrieve our anchor which was totally wrapped around coral bommies in multiple figure eights and we moved up to Takamaka Island which gave better protection from the SE winds. Here we could anchor in a pass in sand rather than on coral but we also stopped catching fish which was a bit of a blow. Got to know an Austrian couple on a catamaran who were into shark fishing off the shore, also coconuts galore so got a bit of variety anyway. They had fixed up an old camp area with some protection and spent a lot of their time ashore during the day. We went exploring and found a baby Tropic Bird in a nest so went back a few times to watch the progress but only caught mother feeding it the first time when we did not have the camera with us.
Picked a bad day to sail the dinghy down the atoll to Bodum island to get info on Malaysia as we decided that the best place to fix a Japanese engine would be in SE Asia. Had a great romp down but trying to sail back into the wind was getting to be difficult and then the rudder broke, so down wind we ran back to Bodum Island. Luckily one of the boats there lent us their outboard and we motored home but had to go back in ILLAWONG the next day to return the borrowed outboard and then back again. Another lesson learnt the hard way.
Left Chagos on the 12 July running down wind across the atoll at 3kn under bare poles and as soon as we cleared the pass a bloody US military supply freighter from Diego Garcia, came drifting out from behind the island heading across our path. As we don't like to pass in front of any freighter, we called and said we would go behind him but he was doing 5Kn and we were actually sailing faster than he was moving so we had to turn hard into a 20-25Kn wind to do that. Great start and it wasn't even a Friday. That past, had a good romp to Malaysia sailing with the wind on our beam to aft quarter in winds mostly around 10-20 Kns. As we got closer to the equator we experienced quite a lot of thunder storm activity that kept us on our toes as we had to reduce sail in the squalls as they passed. We found that we often sailed with 2nd or 3rd reef in the main and jib and staysail set so that as a squall approached we could just drop the jib and keep sailing along with everything under control and as soon as squall passed up went the jib again. We have variations on this with the genoa going up and down and as long as the windvane self steering keeps control and does not let Illawong round up into the wind then everything is fine. Once we get reefed down to 3rd reef and staysail in really strong winds it is really reassuring when a real strong gust of wind hits and all Illawong does is sail faster in a straight line. Easy for us as we do not have to go out on deck and fight to get sails down and secure. When we left Canada we would heave to in winds much above 35Kns but on this trip found ourselves with only a reefed staysail up, running for about 18hrs with the wind 15deg off the stern to keep the sail full, in 40-45Kn winds, spray from the surface of the sea being blowing across Illawong, waves catching up to us and momentarily soaking the cockpit and us down below snug and dry and ducking head out every so often to look around. Felt marvellously secure in our small world.
After we crossed the equator we had to pass through the major shipping lanes heading to or from the Malacca Strait. Often we are happy to see shipping at night as from their lights we are able to determine whether we are going to get into trouble or not. This time we were glad to cross during the day as at any one time we could see at least nine ships coming and going and always off set from each other so that if we just got behind one ship then another would be there in our path. With our Tan Bark sails fully flying in 15kns of wind we were moving along nicely and could be seen from along way away. Actually did not have to alter course for any shipping, they always seemed to have taken us into account which was really heartening. After we finally got clear of that lane we then found that all the Supertankers were making another lane further north for themselves and we had to really keep on our toes, not so many of these ships but as they are so slow in manoeuvring and generally so bad vision forward because of the size of the ship and bridge being right aft, we always assume they have not seen us. Finally managed to get north of all the shipping and then later that day had the most strange occurrence happening that we were made to realize why early sailors could get really superstitious of what was in the water. We would be sailing along in light seas, main and genoa up, doing a few knots and all of a sudden we would sail into a patch of ocean which was literally jumping up out of the water. All around Illawong the wind would completely die off and the churning water would cause some wavelets to form 2-3m high with spray going up another meter at least. It was just like being in a boiling cauldron and it affected us 20 century people enough that we started the motor and slowly moved out of the area as we came totally becalmed in these regions with sails banging all over the place. With our sickly motor it took us half and hour to get clear and then all of a sudden we were off sailing again as if nothing at all had happened. This happened about six times and we were glad to eventually leave this behind. Then we just plain sailed into light airs north of Sumatra. We did not want to run the motor but with contrary current and light and variable winds it was certainly the easiest way to get to Langkawi, if not the only way, as we did not want to hang around close to Sumatra. Eventually saw Langkawi islands appear in the morning haze and motored thru pretty, treed, islands of all shapes and sizes, into Malaysia and dropped anchored on August 2nd just off the main ferry terminal. So after nearly 4 months away from civilization we went shopping and to KFC for dinner and realized that we had not missed much.
Langkawi is very touristy, not much good fresh food available, plenty of canned goods tho at reasonable prices so replenished our depleted stores, ate out a few times, spent 2 days touring with Scorpio II crew, a New Zealand family who we met in Chagos, and completed what necessary maintenance we had to do, but found nothing available for motor repairs. Left there to hide out behind one of those lovely island where Julia did the washing ashore from a fresh water stream and Phil was just able to see the propeller to clean it. Peace and quiet again, watching kingfishes, eagles, otters, dolphins, monkeys. Always something to enjoy though swimming definitely was curtailed as the further south we went the murkier the water got.
Day sailed to Penang, anchoring behind an island overnight. All night a generator ran to floodlight the completely fenced in island so maybe we found the local jail again which seems to happen most places we visit. We anchored off Georgetown on arrival at Penang. When dropping the anchor, the theory is to back downwind in order to set it with phil playing the rope anchor rode out around the bollard slowly till the correct scope is let out - works too - unless there is a current, especially one running 3-4 knots. Actually had to motor forward in order to prevent the whole anchor rode going overboard, perhaps along with Phil's fingers - we learnt pretty fast on that one. If we had actually taken note of how the other boats were lying we would not have been in that predicament. Here you attract the attention of the "bum boat" helmsmen and they ferry you to shore rather than taking your own dinghy which could be left high and dry in the mud while you are shopping as the tide range is very large. The system works well. We enjoyed our stay, quite different architecture and people much more old SE Asia than the rest of modern Malaysia that we saw. But we weren't able to find any help for our engine here either, so after a couple of days, at the change of tide we left for Kampong Baharu, a small town 10 miles up a slow flowing, muddy river, a quiet, protected anchorage where we could work on the motor. From here a bus left every 1 1/2 hour for Setiwan, the main shopping town. We managed to get new fuel injectors and cleaned out the old ones for spares. Copper washers, fuel line fittings, diesel filters and other small bits and pieces were also available but to get actual engine parts meant importing which added alot to the cost and everything was organized third hand which also added potential problems.
Took some time out to visit Kuala Lumpur by bus, with Scorpio II for the celebration of Independence Day in Malaysia. Unfortunately the celebration started earlier than we did and we missed it so spent the time wandering around the parks, buildings, downtown, being the real tourist.
Decided that the best thing was to get down near Singapore so we could organize engine parts ourselves which of course meant getting down Malacca Strait without using the engine if possible. The 6 days spent slowing making our way down the Malacca Strait was a different kind of experience again, because of all the out of control bush fires in Indonesia and Malaysia, not much wind and no rain, visibility was very poor. What little wind there was, came straight up the Strait so we tried working the current (anchoring when against us), sailing across to the Indonesian side and back again with ships appearing out of the smoke only 1/4 mile away, tacking up wind, all of which did little for progress down the Strait and alot for giving us an early grave. We guess the ships saw us on radar as they did not run over us. When once again clear of the shipping and behind a sand bar, a local freighter came at us which we adeptly tacked about to avoid and as soon as we turned back on course there was another one coming from the opposite direction that we had not seen at all and who did not give a damn about us as no warning horn or anything. Another quick tack got us clear of him also but gained extra white hairs for both of us. We decided that the motor would just have to last to get us to Johor Baru. Anchoring was not a problem on the east side of the Strait except one night we got caught up in an old fish net floating on the current. It was caught off the bow luckily, not the prop, but was bar tight down either side of Illawong, we spent quite some time getting free after it had dragged us north 3/4Nm while we slept. Thank goodness for good charts and G.P.S. Radar would have been working overtime if we had had one and is now definitely on the shopping list.
Arrived off Johor Baru (JB), on the Malaysian side of the Singapore causeway and picked up a mooring buoy off the Marine Police dock. Sat there for the next 6 weeks while we finally got around to fixing the engine. We travelled all over Singapore to as many of the engine parts stores we could find and after we ordered some parts from one company we found a Japanese company that could get parts for us for about half the cost and also would send worldwide to us so that settled parts supply. A diesel repair company in JB machined out the head and inserted a new valve seat as it turned out that one valve was very close to losing its head and really wrecking the engine.
While waiting for parts to arrive we bought boat parts, 100AH batteries, paint in 20L cans for repainting the bottom of Illawong, checked out computers, generally toured Singapore and were really impressed with the ease of commuting on train and bus. Incredibly well organised transit system and shopping but the day of cheap pricing is over. Bought a new GPS for a spare but had it sent from USA where it was much cheaper, as are electronics in general. If we could find the same item in JB it was always cheaper there than Singapore. For a camera, Singapores attitude was "fine, buy it in JB then" so apparently they could not even match prices. The 3% VAT was not the reason, Import duty, the local GPS sales people told us, was the problem.
Finally with a good working engine and all planned repairs complete, we were off to Perth, Australia to visit family. Originally we planned on being there 9 months after we left USA in 1993. Five minutes after we motored out of JB the Autohelm self steering we use while motoring and sailing in very light airs, died and we looked at each other and said "to hell with going back, we are on our way" and that was that. We averaged 6 hours motoring each day through Indonesia, crossing the equator for the third time this year, and it took us 11 days till we cleared Sunda Strait most of this time the wind was on the nose so did alot of tacking and now and then could lay our course line while hard on the wind which is always a bonus. On clearing Sunda Strait we were promptly into some real swell from the Indian Ocean and immediately broke off our SSB antenna wire which kept trying to get tangled in the wind generator. Phil with a bit of judicious use of a boat hook and acting like a monkey in a very rolly boat managed to snag the wire and get it tied down but not at all able to fix it on the go. At the same time the fridge stopped working and we noticed that sailing close up wind into the swell, the wind vane was working at its fittings in an extremely unhealthy manner so decided to go to Christmas Island to effect repairs. This was an easy decision to make but extremely difficult to carry out as we found that the only way we could actually sail to Christmas Island was motor sailing hard into the 20Kn wind that was blowing, along with the 2Kn current that was flowing past the island. We carried as much sail as we dared and ran the engine at faster than cruising revs for 32 hours and the whole time Illawong was completely burying her rail. Life was definitely not pleasant. It was a real relief to finally get behind the island even though it was the southern most headland that sheltered us, the harbour being at the north eastern end.
We spent 5 days on the island fixing the windvane and antenna and doing a bit of sightseeing. Found it hard to get around, the locals where not very forthcoming with their welcome but a chinese builder gave us a ride across the island and back to where we wanted to walk, back through the forest, which was really nice. The fridge was working again now we were at the island so decided to leave that alone as it did not appear that it would be easy to get a repair man out to Illawong in a quite rolly anchorage. Another yacht was having a hard time to get some welding done for their wind vane steering as everyone was too busy to help out, which is a bit disappointing on a small island.
The best we can say for the rest of the sail to Fremantle was we left on Thursday, Nov 13 and arrived Monday, Dec 15 after sailing 2,700Nm up wind up current to do 1,400Nm as a sensible Booby would fly, and we finally motored into 40Kn winds into Fremantle sailing club and tied up and 5 minutes after tying off the ropes the wind died to nothing for the next few days, but we did arrive to catch Phil's brother, visiting from the USA, by 24Hrs. Phil had actually decided that the family be damned he was going to Rodriques Island when we were still one week from Fremantle but stubborn redheads usually get their way. At least we spent all those years building a submarine because the inside was dry all the way but the outside saw alot of water pass over the decks.
We made it for Christmas 1997 with the family which was a real enjoyable but terribly fattening time and after saying to ourselves that we would spend time on Illawong while in Perth it turned out that the visits were few and far between. After five months living on shore, owning a car again and getting caught up in society we will definitely stay sailing indefinitely.

1996-12-31T15:00:00.000-08:00

YEAR FOUR - THE ILLAWONG CHRONICLE
1996 - Down the Red sea to Mumbai, India

This year will see Illawong explore an interesting, ancient but desolate area of the world on the surface, underneath the waters it is different.
We enjoyed Egypt finding it nothing like it's reputation. In Port Said, Suez, Cairo we continually got "Welcome to Egypt, Welcome to Cairo etc". Again here as in Turkey, we found the people friendly and welcoming to us and it is this which makes these countries so enjoyable.
First day in Suez we walked the 30 minute trek into town and wandered around eventually finding the open-air food market area. Talk about a culture shock, about being TOTALLY GROSSED OUT, by every sense, the rotting vegetables, donkey dung, fish and now and then a dead rat, and we're thinking 'The countries we are headed for, it only gets worse from here?' So what to do? put on the dark glasses pull down the hat, pick up the feet and place them carefully - carry on. But neither of us really notice these things when the stall owners are competing to see who we will buy from and when we stop to buy from one there is a glad welcome and then a thumbs up to their neighbours saying "I Won". It is all fun and so lively. We found the "better" section and started trying out numbers we had learned, pronunciation a bit off sometimes, but the people are very friendly, "Welcome, Welcome" again, and very helpful. Often some of the other customers who speak english helped out and made sure things were fair all round. It only took us 1 day to learn the numbers and to count to 100 so perhaps our brains are still working. Only once did one stall try to give us a wrong price and he was being overbearing and difficult anyway so we bought elsewhere. I'm sure the kids also had a competition as to who could talk to us the longest, if the elders thought we were being pestered too much they put in a word or two. We were able to buy more or less what we wanted but I tell you, it all gets washed thoroughly in clorox before being eaten. Ventured to take a share taxi back to the marina, for 30 pesetas (.12 cents) for 2.
Then off to Cairo by bus thru extremely desolate countryside, about the only habitation we saw was immense military areas with tanks, artillery etc but few people or troops. Arrived around lunchtime and learned very quickly that you have to be fast on your feet crossing the roads, don't suppose they are bad drivers, it's just there are so many of them. Spent the afternoon locating ourselves, a place to stay, went thru the market area. Met up with a local, Mohammed, who offered to show us where the locals shop - not the tourist area - but we whizzed through so quickly that really all we got was an impression, interesting and learnt where to go back to. Next morning was spent in the museum which was really absorbing, the statues of nobles and gods, crypts, mummies, jewellery, the elaborate way in which the nobles were enshrined, as well as the basic museum paraphernalia. It really is amazing when you realize just how much gold and jewellery has disappeared as it was certainly lavishly used by the pharaohs. Walked all afternoon just sightseeing then met up with Mohammed again who took us up the minaret of a mosque to look out over the roof tops of the city, then to see some absolutely fabulous paintings on papyrus and finally at sundown to eat. Here too at sundown during Ramadan, everybody is sat down waiting for food, it really is a scramble, then 10 minutes later they are gone. All next day was taken up wandering around the pyramids and sphinx. Quite a nice day, rather smoggy, it only rained just enough to slick the roads on the way out there. Yes, rather impressive and quite claustrophobic when going down the tunnels to where the coffin was kept, but for us the magic was when we stepped back a way and with the sphinx in the foreground, the pyramids amid barren desert sand, could be seen along the skyline. We had to make sure that we could not see modern Cairo to get a real sense of the Pyramids otherwise the atmosphere got lost. At the pyramids we had to fend off guides, camel and horse & buggy owners and boys wanting to show or sell us things, but not that many and they understood LA SHUKRAN (No Thankyou).
I'm afraid tho that the touristy nature and commercialism of these monuments really does detract from their grandeur and leaves one feeling as if you missed something. Cairo itself though dirty and dusty was really interesting and on the whole enjoyable. You must be able to look past the dirt which is just a "normal" thing here due, I'm sure, to not enough rain and far too many people. Some really charming buildings but trying to walk around and get to places was very difficult as it was so easy to get lost with no street names anywhere.
Prices in Egypt are more to our liking, fresh food about 2/3 the cost of Turkey. The bus to Cairo, 120Km cost US$3.50 for 2 where in Israel 200Km cost US$50. Accommodation and eating out are on par with Turkey - we can afford to travel here and there is plenty to see. It's pretty impressive though hard to relate to the age of the ancient sites, buildings and monuments. Guess never really thought about it before but Egypt is very mountainous and rugged with just a narrow sandy coastal plain, just figured it would be more rolling hills like giant sand dunes.
Back in Suez, we had a couple of days to stock up for our sail down to Safaga which would be about three weeks so had to, endure? the food market again, but this time got really brave and bought 2 chickens, alive of course, how else do they keep them fresh without refrigeration. So you wait. (Hope you're not sitting down to lunch or something) Okay, so once they are dead (Julia doesn't want to dwell on this part too long) they are placed in very hot water for a few minutes and then held and turned over this machine which has a turning drum with a multitude of thick fingers sticking up - plucks all the feathers off in no time and leaves the bird very clean, doesn't seem to bruise the meat at all. They then proceed to chop off the feet, clean out the insides giving you the vital organs if desired and there you have it, with the head still on. All very clinical really. 2 eggs were laid (by other hens) while we waited so we were given those too.
Our time came to depart but that day waves, generated from very strong southerlies, were coming over the back of the boat and kept us from even going out into the cockpit let alone out of the marina. The stern mooring buoy was being pulled completely underwater but held OK, the front mooring was not doing much. A pontoon that we tied the dinghy up to whenever we went ashore broke free from its moorings ended up on a rocky groin. We were glad to be up wind of it. The following day, Feb 7, there was hardly any wind so we motorsailed south but after doing 25Nm a 25-30Kn SE wind arose and with Thelemet Bay still another 40Nm south and open to south anyway and straight into wind and waves to get there we decided to turn back to Suez Bay. Arriving at 1830 in the dark with no moon we were very thankful for having good charts and GPS altho a lot of the buoys on the chart weren't lit or were hidden by ships at anchor. Phil did a marvellous job plotting a course on the chart to miss all the sandbar shallows, rocks, wrecks, islands and big ship anchorage areas till finally we made it to a clear, sheltered spot.
So we did 42Nm and lost 3 buckets overboard when a couple of waves leapt aboard into the cockpit, just to gain 6 miles down the Gulf of Suez. Unfortunately we had anchored over a fishing net so were awakened at 0200 to help the fishermen clear that intact (No problem, thankyou, my friend, they said). For the next 2 days we sat cooped up at anchorage while strong southerly winds raged, flinging sand at us wholesale. Everybody, of course, told us that going south in Red sea was no problem Ha Ha. Friendly fishermen gave us a meal of shrimp - rather tasty. As soon as the weather died down the Egyptian Navy came out and informed us that we were anchored outside a Navy base in a prohibited area. They told the fishermen to leave also and checked that they had not been a hassle to us then returned to base with our canal transit papers. A short time later they returned with a Colonel who spoke english and he invited us into the base, saying that the Egyptian Navy welcomed us to their country and would be pleased to supply us with water, food and fuel if we desired.
Being an all male base, it was not practical for Julia to have a shower but as she had commented on how dirty Illawong was they arranged for the base fire engine to come alongside and give Illawong a shower, from the top of the mast down, from bow to stern, sunpanels, inside the dodger, the whole lot - so glad to get all that salt encrusted red sand off. We were not able to stay right there so we went just outside their breakwater and anchored again. At 2330 our Navy contact came on board bringing eggs, cheese, canned fig jam and an Egyptian sweet similar to soft honeycomb. When we mentioned that the weather was much better and we were looking at leaving tomorrow he said that we would have to go into the commercial harbour overnight - why we could not determine. Off he went and brought back a Harbour Policeman, the Colonel then went forward and winched in our anchor and we then motored into the Harbour and tied up alongside. In the commercial harbour they wanted us to pay dockage fees but were waved off by the Navy for that night. Then we both had to take our passports and go with them to see the Harbour Master - drink tea, watch a bit of T.V. and wait an hour for them to photocopy our passports. When that was all done, we were taken back to the boat and a few minutes later a pickup appeared with a 200L drum of diesel for us to fill up our jerrycans and the main tank. We had decided not to fill up with diesel in Suez because it was cheaper in Safaga, no agent fees to pay and we would be sailing down wind!!. This was quite a bonus as we took on 155L but had to leave the rest behind. The Navy did not allow us to pay for anything, our berth, the diesel, food, water - "You're Welcome, You're Welcome, Enjoy your stay in Egypt". At 0230 the Navy left and we went back to bed. Left next morning around 0700 and because we had been given so much diesel didn't overly mind having to motorsail all day in light winds. In the usual manner just as we got close to Thelemet the wind increased and blew quite strong from the NE for the remainder of the night. We stayed in Thelemet 4 days taking advantage of the 1 glorious day since leaving Suez to go shell seeking along the sandbar sheltering the anchorage it's still toooooo coooold to go sssswwwimming. Had a relatively calm day to leave Thelemet, wind from the northwest straight down the waterway, course that made the waves from the same direction and so we rolled a little until the wind picked up and then we rolled a lot with only the Genoa poled out and the main down. Alot of our down wind sailing is with poled out genoa and spinnaker till around 12Kns then genoa only to around 25Kns and then jib or staysail from then on. With no main up there is no damage to sails but we roll.
South Gulf of Suez is the major oil producing region for Egypt with warnings on the chart about unlit structures and wellheads that we had to keep eyes open for. We planned to transit this area during daylight but as the wind kept on getting stronger and stronger from the NE we had to bypass a couple of anchorages no longer offering protection. So in the dark we sailed outside the edge of the shipping lane as this seemed to be the safest. On the chart we could see a wellhead but in the dark nothing so Julia plotted our position and came on deck to say the structure should be very close. She was right as eventually we identified a darker patch with a real faint light on that Phil had decide was something a long way off. Slight change of course to get more room and decided to sail inside the edge of the shipping lane but then ships came pretty close. Around 2200 we just had to change to smaller sails (above 25Kns). Once the genoa was down we still drifted along at 2Kns under bare poles. This actually suited us fine as we were going through a very congested area right at the bottom of the Gulf of Suez, narrow waterway with flashing lights everywhere of towns, brilliant oil flares, monstrous oil platforms, buoys and channel markers, supply boats coming and going, north and south bound tankers. One tanker went by moving fast, pounding into the waves heading N, with a very bright stern light and the spray flying out the back was really impressive. The glow from the oil structures with flaring red gas flames lighting up the whole horizon and pockets of light on working/residential structures was quite eerie and reminded us of aftermath World War 3 scenarios, just wouldn't have had the same effect during the day.
We then arrived at the next possible anchorage at Tawila Island after sunup, a must for seeing coral outcrops and shallows for our first "coral anchorage". Also known as the "fishhook" it was a really quiet safe place to spend another few days. The whole island was made up of dead coral with sand blown on top, humungous shells strewn everywhere and very barren. Half a dozen large sea eagle nests with birds in residence, lots of crabs of different types, scurrying around and one relatively clean bucket minus handle, which we purloined to replace those lost. Sadly, the whole western side of the island and bays had a waterline slick of tar from previous oilspills. Left with very light winds which died during the day and we had to motor to next anchorage - same story next day. Bypassed Hurghada which is a major tourist hotel resort area and anchored in Safaga, only 20Nm further south. This anchorage is not great, in fact we sometimes felt a little seasick at anchor with the strong northerly winds bringing a swell around the point. Got to dislike Safaga pretty quickly because of the tourist hotels and the manner in which tourists are ripped off by Share taxi's and market prices always being marked up 3 times even though they were listed in Arabic numbering. We generally paid close to the correct amount but this entailed a fair amount of haggling and often moving on to the next stall or wait for next taxi. After they realised we could read numbers and speak numbers things improved a bit. We spent one week finding our way around and looking after other boats as crews travelled to Luxor.
Put out an extra anchor on Illawong, left her all on her own and then we also took off to Luxor. Had a really lovely time. Caught an old dilapidated bus at lunch-time into Qena on the Nile River and continued on from there in a minibus which took us along an irrigation canal all the way to Luxor about 60Kms, arriving around 1630. After driving through barren, rocky hills practically all the way in, really depressing country, it was a real change to see the lush green which only emanates perhaps 2-3Kms away from the canal, and/or River, on either side. Taken to a rather nice hotel by a local, a good walk from the river and main tourist area, much quieter and just down the road was a teahouse reminiscent of Turkey, which we also enjoyed quite often. Found different, good food in local eateries during our stay. First day we set off across to the 'west bank', bought our tickets and took a taxi out to the Valley of the Kings. Quite interesting the tombs with their paintings and carvings, mostly behind glass panels, all along the extensive passageways and in the different rooms each side. These scenes were of everyday events, sowing or reaping the fields, making wine from grapes, celebration processions, or the kings and nobles personally being presented to different gods and goddesses, or bearing offerings of fruit, wine, water, animals, etc. to them. We really had to brush up on our Egyptology. From there we hiked over the hills to the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut, the only woman queen/king/pharaoh, ruling for 20 years. From the top of the hills you could see for quite a distance along the Nile river valley and the absolutely striking cutoff from sandy desert to lush green vegetation. Looking down on the Temple was quite spectacular as was the view from in front. The mind truly boggles at the extensiveness of the stone works, ramps, pillars, canal leading to the Nile, and to imagine that it was green back then with imported trees of various types it must indeed have been amazing. This ruler did go all out to be remembered when gone, little did she know her images everywhere would be decimated by her successor. Wandered back thru the old time workmens area but not a great deal to see there, so pushed on to temple of Seti I which was interesting, again because of the carvings on every square inch of all the walls, and it was deserted - no other tourists around. Along the road back to the city we watched now time workers manually cutting sugar cane and loading it onto flat-top train wagons, then a full train towed by it's little engine went past. Next day we went for a walk upstream along the Nile, stopped to watch a felucca (old style river sailboat) fight it's way upstream but then another came flying downstream being helped along by wind and current.
Luxor Temple was somewhat impressive as building style/design progressed thru the different rulers but at night, with all the different aspects being highlighted it was quite spectacular. Here also was the beginning of the 3km long ancient paved road to Karnak Temple, lined on either side with statues of lions their faces all different. The third day we ventured back across to the west bank to visit the Valley of the Nobles (not much there), Valley of the Queens (not as impressive but incredibly well preserved paintings, not alot of carvings) and, then onto we feel, the most spectacular, but almost deserted (we counted 8 other tourists), temple of all, Ramses III Medinat Habu Temple. Again, every square inch of wall, column, archway, had been carved with various scenes, but it was the sheer size and expanse that made us just sit back and soak up the atmosphere. Karnak Temple, the next day, was bigger but pale in comparison, maybe this was also due to hordes and hordes of tourists so we left early and took the bus back to Safaga. Got back to find our oars had been stolen but dinghy ok. Inshallah as they say. After enduring another 10 days here, including bus trips to Hurghada, where we did the rounds of about 7 different places searching for mail that never arrived, or did arrive and was supposedly sent back, we gave up and left for nicer places.
Final stocking up in Safaga so that with Turkey and Cyprus stores we had on board 36 litres Coke Cola, 40Kg flour for bread, muffins, picklets and chocolate cake baking, 20Kg sugar, 5Kg coffee, 9Kg butter, 20Kg potatoes, 10Kg onions, 10Kg rice & spaghetti, 120 eggs, 4Kg tomatoes, 5Kg meat which gets frozen, 7Kg various fresh vegetables, 7Kg fruit, 5L cooking oil, 10Kg breakfast cereals, then about 50Kg canned goods; peas, carrots, tomatoes/paste, fruit, jams, meat products plus alot of other miscellaneous stuff.
From here south really began our adventure of the Red Sea and a slow trip snorkelling on the reefs was decidely the best thing. Oh, it was just so beautiful, we never ever got tired of it. Ours were the choicest days - seas calm, non-windy, swimming on the outside of the reefs where all the most superb coral and bountiful, beautiful fish were. On these days, those boats northbound would be out there flogging their motors for all they were worth to get distance while they could, and missing out on all the best diving leaving the places virtually deserted. In one 25 day period northbound yachts moved for only 5 days. Mind you, on the real windy days we didn't move either, but sometimes we could just scoot the 10 or 15 miles to the next anchorage down wind with poled out genoa doing 7+Kns, rolling our guts out, then drop the sail, motor around the end of an island or reef, Phil would climb the mast and conn us into a suitable spot in flat calm water. For conning the boat around coral Phil would climb the mast to the spreaders, hang on desperately sometimes as the seas tried to swing him off into the water and generally yell and point which way to go. Julia would be busy watching Phil up the mast or trying to look ahead and every now and then a squeal would come as a coral head slipped by close to Illawong that she had not seen but Phil had. It was really quite easy to negotiate the channels in between the reefs and bommies (outcrops or islets of coral separate from the reef) by the different colours of the water and only very rarely did we have to cross a shallow section. Side currents and wind had to be watched out for and having a reliable motor is of paramount importance but it was always pretty calm in amongst the reefs. At least one boat heading north would have nothing to do with coral and spent alot of time out sailing in bad weather. During the time of our transit one boat ran aground entering Safaga but was hauled off OK the next day, one hit a reef and sunk in about 30 seconds (crew ok but not even passports retrieved) and two boats, one French and one British, were arrested in Eritrea due to over anxious military re the Hanish Islands invasion they staged, and spent a month in Asmara in Hotel detention before finally being released.
We decided that ocean crossing is quite a bit safer than passages like the Red Sea but you learn you must always go careful and check and then double check where you plan to go. We sailed down the west side of the Red Sea in Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea (obtained independence from Ethiopia in May 1993) then into the middle to the Yemen Islands and out to Aden. North Yemen forcibly annexed the south to form one country around 94/95.
We did not go across to Saudi Arabia at all as non islamic tourists are just not welcome by the officials and your reception on arrival in a yacht is very dependent upon who you meet and if you have a genuine reason for stopping. Even yachts stranded on reefs on the Saudi side are left to be rescued by the Egypt navy who charge 50% salvage value of yacht for rescue, so though we have had good experience with the navy other yachties are rather upset with them, much better to not go aground. Along the west coast we anchored in inlets into the desert called marsa's, behind islands with protection generally from prevailing winds only and within reef systems where we nearly always had 360 deg wave protection. We preferred the reef anchorages, less boats, much cooler, better swimming, clean water, clean air (except for once, some 20 miles offshore, we got coated by a sandstorm) and still good protection. We enjoyed the fish caught along the way from trolling 2 lines astern but slowly managed to lose spoons and squids to some rather big fish as well as catching half fishes if the sharks got there first.
Started swimming at Marsa Tarifi, after a last overnight sail for a long time, from Safaga. The water was, um, invigorating, but so incredible was the coral and fish we still stayed in for around 1.5hrs until we got out blue with cold. The water got warmer as we headed south and we progressively stayed in for longer times. The exquisite fish - all multi-colours, sizes and shapes, swimming, lazing, eating, chasing each other in and out of the coral, their mating swirl dances were fascinating to watch. A chameleon frogfish??? was the same colour as the while plate coral it was lying on so still, when Phil dove for a better look it turned a bright red in anger and opened its quite large jaw full of teeth, moved to a patch of variegated coral and immediately changed colour again to blend in and virtually disappear - amazing to watch the transformation of colour. Turtles, sharks, barracuda, bright red midget starfish, eels, stingrays, no-one has ever backpedalled so fast when a spotted eagle ray turned round and menacingly opened it huge, huge mouth full of sharp teeth, and Phil wasn't even that close - didn't even have the presence of mind to take a photo, just shouted to get into the dingy. Julia towed the dinghy while snorkelling so that when sharks or barracuda showed more than a passing interest we had an out. Early on we left the water at the first sign of shark but after a while only if they came back for a second look - we still gathered around the dingy and then decided on next course of action. Generally sharks would come close to look at us and as soon as we turned and saw them they took off like a rocket. Barracuda were more curious than sharks and also more territorial so they were actually more of a concern and we got in the dingy more because of them than sharks. We found that we were of interest to the fish just as much as they were to us. Huge coral groupers would follow along as we swam, Napoleon and Pappadoppolous, fish as big as we are, would swim by to have a look. The first time we saw one of these it was just a shadow going by and Phil wondered what monster from the deep was coming for us. Phil was obviously more tasty as a moray eel decided to have a closer look at him, he really backpedals quite well actually but the only trouble is that he always has the camera. We used Kodak Weekender underwater cameras and are quite pleased with the photos, not professional but pretty good.
In Egypt we saw dive boats taking tourists out scuba diving and twice we were given vegetables, frozen chicken and even frozen beefburgers as well as fish at the end of their charter time when they were heading back to shore. Once we could return the favour as Phil helped them sort out their GPS unit, but really generous people expecting nothing in return.
We stopped at islands and reefs as the Egyptian military was nearly always present in marsas and would check papers and maybe even take passports for the duration of stay. We enjoyed the lagoon reef anchorage at White Rock with two entrances close together, right in the middle of Foul Bay, so named because of the number of reefs and generally avoided by most yachts. Again our US charts proved accurate and with the GPS had no problems, but a continual lookout is kept while sailing with one of us forward at all times. In Halaib near the Sudan border (in Sudan's opinion actually in Sudan but when oil was discovered near here it suddenly became part of Egypt) we stayed overnight tied to a friendly Egyptian navy patrol boat and given dinner and again diesel. First stop in undisputed Sudan waters was Marsa Umbelia, one of the prettiest places, with rolling hills covered in savannah land type vegetation, shimmering trees, camels wandering about. Some of the marsas in Sudan extend into the desert up to 6kms - when we went for walks Illawong looked completely surrounded by land, in general, very desolate, dry and sparsly covered but always we saw camels and/or goats, rarely people. Our all round favourite place for snorkelling was a rather large and extensive reef system called Shambaya reefs and after doing all the things that the yachting pilot books say not to do about entering here, and finding a real good anchorage in 5m instead of the recommended 12m, we spent a few days here and moved around to different areas within the reef. The coral and fish here around the bommies were really superb. Also stopped at Shab Rumi (reef) and checked out the underwater house used by Jacques Cousteau for studying sharks.
We took 2 months to wend our way from Safaga to Port Sudan and except for food given us by the dive boats we did not go near a village or market. We used our watermaker (desalinator) for water every day and until that failed because of a plastic check valve we had no shortage of water. It was here we finally found out why we had to replace parts every 6 months and thinking we had spare check valves got to work and found it was the check valves that were broken not O-rings leaking. OOPS!!! A bit of superglue to fix and that usually got 150L water before breaking again. This failure along with needing food and LPG gas meant heading for Port Sudan in order to have spare parts for the watermaker sent from the U.S. The only method of ordering was via an Immarsat fax unit on one of the charter dive boats operating there. Very hard to phone out of Sudan and definitely no faxes. Once ordered there was no hassles in getting the parts in by DHL, but sending a signal out into the ether not knowing whether it arrived or not and then waiting for parts to appear miraculously a week later is a reason we learn patience while sailing. It is quite weird the sense of time travel that takes place in these countries with nomads still living in open tents in the desert as they have done for thousands of years and using satellite communications to order parts from the other side of the world and have them arrive faster than by camel. Good market in Port Sudan for most things except the usual unappetizing arabic bread (personal view of course).
On leaving Port Sudan we visited a couple of reef anchorages unknown to the yachting crowd but used by Italian dive boats working out of Port Sudan. Shab Anbar and Tawil reef were both excellent lagoon anchorages with great diving and after a down wind run doing over 8Kns we anchored in calm waters with 1.5m waves crashing onto the reef 300m away. It was here at Anbar that we went swimming with 40 of those pappadoppolous sea monsters that we mentioned before. They eat coral and are continually ramming it to break off the polyps with a resulting hammering sound being transmitted through the water.
In southern Sudan and Eritrea, when the water became too warm to be refreshing and too murky to enjoy the coral, we turned to bird watching on the islands. Pelicans, flamingos with their young, 4 or 5 different types of tern still sitting on their eggs, on the beach, in the sand dunes or further inland under scrub, and black and white wading birds in the hundreds flying out of island burrows but which we have not been able to identify. Also saw boobies, mature and young. It was not uncommon for birds to occupy the whole island.
Not terribly impressed with Eritrea, no fuss involved in getting our 7 day visas for US$25 each plus $5/day harbour charge. The bus ride up to Asmara, the capital, took 6 hours to do 200Km on a steep switchback road was picturesque. Very pleasant climatewise while there, being around 2,500 metres up, particularly after the coastal heat, but the city was rather uninspiring we felt. Not very good provisioning in Massawa, in the heat everything wilts - us too. By now it was July - the hottest part of the Red Sea at the hottest time, each day around 42deg and 90+% humidity and down to 33deg in the early morn. We slept on deck and Phil would spray himself with water every 2 hours to get cool enough to go to sleep for awhile.
It was difficult to know what the policy of Eritrea is regarding day sailing down the coast and because of the problems of other boats being arrested we decided to head out into the middle of the Red Sea to Zubair Islands. Really enjoyed a few days there, it was a bit cooler, we could go swimming and Saba Island has a couple of extinct volcanoes for hiking up, plus alot of bird life.
We departed Saba Island and went close to the one island that had Yemen military on who started to shoot their rifles to attract our attention. Not shooting at us luckily but anyone shooting guns is enough reason for us to go as fast a possible in the opposite direction. With our typical good luck a fishing boat was close by which the military commandeered to come after us. Eventually they caught up, came aboard, checked our passports (upsidedown) asked nationality and destination which was Aden in Yemen, apologised for bothering us and off they went back to their base. This again happened close to Zugar islands, the Yemeni welcomed and invited us to stop but there was just too much military about as this is close to the area where Eritrea annexed Hanish islands but in Yemen waters, we decided to press on.
We were glad we did because later that day a good 20Kn northerly blew and we had a great romp to finish off our time in the Red Sea and out through the straits of Bab el Mandeb into the Gulf of Aden, exiting just before midnight on our wedding anniversary of July 21. So, we entered Egypt to traverse the Suez Canal, on January 24, overall thoroughly enjoyed the Red Sea, travelled 1,747Nm and used the motor for 200 hours. Within half and hour of turning the corner, heading for Aden, out came the clothes - an amazing difference - the wind turned to stay from behind but the temperature dropped a good 8 deg. Having been used to the heat for some time it proved a pleasant tho surprising change as we expected Aden to be just as hot as in the Red Sea. Later that morning down came the Genoa and up with the jib as we ended up with 30+Kns wind from behind so made really good time towards Aden until that died at dusk and left us with a real uncomfortable sea so we motored to a sheltered anchorage for the night to enter Aden next day.
Aden is actually a port in an extinct volcano with surrounding walls of extremely rugged basalt ridges, devoid of vegetation cutting off winds and radiating heat and is made up of three different towns separated by these ridges. Again we met friendly and helpful locals but you had to watch the prices, good provisioning as expected, extremely easy formalities as they have been a port for foreign shipping for around 150yrs, the harbour was cleaner than we had been lead to believe, the town dusty and hot, which made the cheap icecream just great as were the Doners (hot rotisserie meat with tomato, onion and herbs in a bun) and fries. Managed to get into trouble with the harbour authorities and had to write a letter of apology to the Harbour Master for 'polluting and silting up the harbour' by scraping weed and barnacles off the propeller just before leaving. So we anchored outside and finished scraping the hull before setting off along the Gulf of Aden in early August. This is the dreaded Southwest monsoon season - strong tail winds were expected, right? Very light variable winds or easterlies so zig-zagged our way along very slowly into the current (also wrong direction) till the afternoon before Mukalla when the SW monsoon set in!!! then had to take the sails down and drift so as to arrive in daylight.
Rolled and heaved at anchor from the aftermath of the winds, waiting for the officials who decided it was too rough and asked us to proceed into the harbour for clearance. On reaching the entrance the Harbour Master started yelling at us over the VHF, asking what we were doing coming into his domain without permission, threatening to fine us if we continued, so Phil explained we were told to proceed into the harbour and then in frustration ended up telling him to get his people straightened out and not tell us to enter without first clearing it thru him and this mixup was the fault of his officials as we were only doing what we were told. Continuing on on a bad note, the Harbour Master also tried to charge us US$50 for 50L of diesel for which we flatly paid US$8, the harbour was open to the SW and afternoon swell making it very uncomfortable so after 3 days we left. Again very light variable winds or easterlies on this stretch, overcast, coastal fog, took 6 days motor/sailing 380Nm to Salalah, Oman.
Salalah was a great surprise. Of course, we were there at it's best time, the rainy season and altho it didn't rain as such along the coast, moisture seemed to condense out of the air and alot of the time we could not even see the harbour entrance. Higher up in the mountains it was drizzilling most of the time thru to September. 45kms west of town there are blow-holes on the coast and the day we visited the seas were quite rough so there was a lot of spray, also from the large waves hitting the abrupt coastline. Above wave height it was quite green with moss and further up the hillside was covered in small shrubs giving an overall effect of green on rugged landscape. This coastal range curved inland behind Salalah leaving a low coastal plain approx 40kms long by 12kms wide. We also visited a "wadi" (stream) at the foot of the mountains, the whole area was just so overwhelming green, lush and wet with water over the road in a few places. This wadi flows all year from the mountains into a systematic "falaj" (irrigation canal) making growing of certain crops possible all year round in the market gardens surrounding Salalah. We saw two other wadi's that flow all year plus drove past a dam, all of these feed the falaj's throughout this region. At the head of each wadi is a park for picnicking, barbecues and walking and at one, a lovely garden area. Certainly Oman is really into water conservation and irrigation. A lot of the crops have been green coconuts (more for drinking than their flesh), bananas and dates, but they are diversifying into a variety of vegetables now as well. As crazy as it sounds, in the souk the price for Salalah produce is higher than eggs, fruit or vegetables imported from India, Turkey, USA or other parts of the Arabian peninsular. These same prices had us gasping - there are approx, C$4 to OR1 (Oman Riyal = 1,000 baisa) - where we had been paying equivalent of C$0.20 for a loaf of bread, we now pay OR0.200, 4 times the cost, and similar for all foodstuff. Beans & Rice & Sprouts??? No, we were able to subsist - the bankcard got a real workout. We could still buy Coke and cornflakes for which we found some wonderful 5% milk and made ourselves sick until we watered it down.
The harbour was 15km out of town and very much controlled by the police. As we did not have an Oman visa we were given a pass each day to go out and about, but had to have special permission for after 1800 and supposedly not on Friday. Getting into town was no problem, generally, the first car waved down would give us a lift to wherever in town we wanted. Coming out again was a different matter. Right in town, it is impossible to know where cars are headed and not many would go to the port area in any case, so we made and held out a sign and got a lift that way - actually only had to use this method once and that person bought us dinner from an Omani takeaway on the way back to ILLAWONG. Next time in town, we were offered a lift by Ahmed who knew people on a boat that we had met in Turkey. These people had been in Salalah for 2 months in 1992 and he had driven them around at that time. So now he became our transport, whenever we went to town, for visiting the various sites mentioned around Salalah, for a picnic lunch up into the hills (once the clouds had evaporated) and generally made himself very helpful which was wonderful for us.
We had to request permission for Ahmed to visit us at the boat or take us into the port with our groceries, the police gate being about 1km from the docks. He works with the Ministry of Defence as a clerk and works 12hrs/week sharing the job with two other people because Omani unemployment is such a problem in Oman.
A clapped out old oil tanker came into harbour and not recognising the flag we went to talk to them. The boat, owned by a Pakistan company, crewed by Indians, under a flag of convenience (made from memory only and nearly correct) was being delivered from Malta to the biggest ship wrecking yard in the world in NW India. This tanker was definitely on its last legs as they had blown up one boiler leaving Malta and got towed into Port Said, Egypt and from then on had been running on the remaining boiler and one water feed pump doing a maximum speed of 5Knots, slower than Illawong. They had to call into Salalah to refill everything with water as they had so many steam leaks that they lost 30tons of water every day. After spending the afternoon with the officers, they offered us all the charts and pilot books (originals, of course, even if a little outdated) on board as they would no longer be needed. Flabbergasted, we readily accepted their generous offer once we could get our jaws closed/working again. The next week was spent in sorting, cataloguing and storing 700 charts and 23 pilot books. We also received an invitation to attend the "traditional southern wedding" of the 1st officer to be held in Cochin on November 17. Of course we promised to be there. Who worries about cyclone season when such an opportunity is presented, but they had stressed there were no cyclones at that time of year along the west coast of India, so we downgraded to "uneasy but watchful" mode.
While in Salalah we wrote a letter to the Harbour Manager, inquiring about haulout - this was the only way we could find out how much it would cost. Waited a week - nothing - went to office again and got referred to Finance who quoted OR160. At that price, Thanks but No Thanks - too expensive. "Well, we used the big crane for the quote as the smaller crane is not at present working. If the small crane was working it would cost you OR60 so we will only charge you that price". Phil had seen the 'smaller' crane and figured it would not have enough reach to pick us up so we were happier with this arrangement. So we're in business. "Go and see Gopi and he will organise everything". At this juncture, let me point out that altho this is Oman, the only manual work done is by the imported hired help and this help comes mostly from India - nothing wrong with that, they just do things in their own time. So - "as Thursday and Friday are holidays, we'll haul out on Saturday". "OK, OK". "What about support timber and blocks". "I will organise that, don't worry, be happy". Etc. etc. Saturday morning. "Oh, all the crane drivers are busy, we'll do it tomorrow'. We did actually get pulled out on Sunday, after other boats had been put into the water and Phil had gone off with some of the help to gather up all the necessary timber. The device used for spreading the slings going under the boat was changed, which actually turned out better. Phil had to go for a swim to rope the two slings together to prevent them slipping and was able to remain cool for the rest of the operation. It all did go very well in the end. Gopi had quite a number of helpers there on hand to guide the boat, place blocks and supports, while still in the slings heave the boat over a bit as it was not sitting quite upright, cutting logs to fit. Phil had his work cut out organising the people. Julia just stood back and took photos. This was a big deal for us, never having done it before, our home in someone else's hands. We had the boat closed up tight, all the windows, door, air vents, and everything inside tightly put away, you know - for Justin (Justin Case). We believe in the theory that the more prepared you are the easier it is, or the less likelihood of anything going wrong. Proved right this time. Everything went like clockwork - just one day out. Took 1 hour. We were then left to ourselves with the cockroaches. We had been placed in a different position than that originally suggested as a boat alongside the dock refused to move (had more pressing business to do - OK).
That meant we were right next to a boat that had been on the hard for some time and a rubbish dump had grown up around it - paint, tyres, oil drums, rubbish, food scraps and cockroaches. Phil spent the first day and a half just trying to seal them out and stringing everything up off the deck. Spread around a dozen roach "motels" and sprayed everything. First thing every morning we went on a killing spree. We then spent a week going over the hull. We had scraped off most of the barnacles in the water so we would not have them falling on us as we scraped overhead, or the mess on the ground. The paint had blistered, we think due to incompatibility of the paints we originally used. So those had to be dug out and wire brushed, a lot down to bare metal, and in some places, large areas of paint was scraped off. About 20% of the bottom paint was removed and 99% of the bubbled areas were clean metal, no rust. The zincs were doing a good job of protecting the steel while the boat was in the water. It really looked if the boat had the pox by the time we had finished. Bit disheartening really. An Ethiopian came and gave us a helping hand to acid clean, wash and paint undercoat as it had to be done in quick succession. More undercoat next day, then on to the antifouling. We had a problem with the paint roller, it didn't like the paint and fell apart so we had to go and buy some different ones. Just as we were leaving for town, the port workers came to clean up the rubbish dump next door. Along with them came the pest control people who sprayed everything in site whether it moved or not - this included our newly cleaned, ready for painting, boat. Phil quietly had a few words with them about that then we went to town and left them to it. So first thing we had to do when we came back from town was borrow a broom to sweep up a mound of dead bodies, 2 feet round by 4 inches high and that was just from under our boat. Then had to wash the boat down again where they had sprayed. I suppose, small price to pay for getting rid of the rubbish. Anyway, on with painting the boat over the next few days. Bright blue bottom of softer ablative paint, deep red/brown 4 inch wide stripe at waterline of hard antifouling (so we can scrub the summer salad or oil slick more easily) and still the green and grey which were not touched. Quite colourful now. Also repainted the dingy bottom with hard antifouling and it now has its name, GRE, on the stern. At last, launch day, Saturday - "no, no, we don't want to rush into these things do we, let's do it on Sunday". Even then, the crane was ready but nothing else. Phil had to organise getting the authorization paper (which on haulout the crane driver had kept) back from Finance, ask the Sultan Special Force group for the slings, ask the boat alongside dock to move. Of course, you don't find out about any of these things until the problem arises. Meanwhile everyone is highly excited/agitated, the Omanis are jabbering away and we can't understand them, the Indians are doing the same in a couple of different languages and we can't understand them either, so when anything is translated to english then it's only half the story anyway and you are left to surmise the rest of whatever is needed. Not much in the way of co-ordination but everything was done eventually and we got put back into the water without mishap and a heavy sigh of relief. Then we spent the next week scrubbing the boat down, washing sails, covers and the green protecting side surrounds, outsides storage boxes, everything we could to try to eliminate the cockroaches. Don't really know what the problem is with the garbage on shore but it was only collected once in the 6 weeks we were there. There seems to be a lot of racial tension/conflict/dislike between the many peoples using that small craft/fishing boat area of the port, not only Omani and Indian, but Sudanese, Ethiopian, Somali, Kenyan, Tanzanian, along with people from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka - a real mishmash. The rest of Oman that we have seen has been really clean.
Finally ready to go. Had a really delightful sail up to Muscat, light winds during the day when we would augment by motoring slowly, generally good sailing winds for most of the night. Hot days but cool refreshing nights. One day we heard clunk,clunk,clunk along the side of the boat, rushed to find out what could be making the noise only to find a turtle stick its head up, blow out ballast air and dive sluggishly to get out of the way. For the next 2 days we saw many of them just floating on the surface and managed to avoid all but 1 more. They are protected around their breeding beaches in Oman. Took 6 days to do 600 miles. Aside from the fact that we had better winds it was nice to motor/sail at 1700rpm doing 5.5Kns instead of the 2.5Kns getting to Salalah. Muscat is so different from Salalah. Modern highrise buildings with very varied architecture, bustling freeways and roundabouts, traffic jams and a really good bus/share taxi system to get around. The Sultans 4 storey high palace is quite unique with large columns on the outside walls mushrooming out at roof top level. The lights at night make it really look something special. All the buildings in the Old Muscat Walled City seem to be rather new, certainly any wall we saw had been reconstructed. They have also rebuilt lookout towers on some of the strategic hills or promontories around to quite good effect. Greater Muscat, made up of 5-6 suburbs, is very much spread out along the coast. Central Muscat post office is 50kms away, opposite the international airport. Greenery and built-up area all along the freeway to the airport and beyond. It is quite green in the built-up areas but hills are still just barren rock. Many water fountains particularly in all the road roundabouts. If the riverbed going thru the centre of town ever ran with water there would be chaos. Learner drivers use the area, cars and trucks awaiting repair are parked in it, roads along the bed itself - never rains here, right?? It is easy to get around and we have been able to find everything we needed except tourist information about the place, so probably have not done as much sightseeing as perhaps we could have. On arrival we were informed that we would need to get a Visa if we wanted to stay longer than 7 days (regardless that we had just spent 6 weeks in Salalah without one). That took a couple of days to organise thru the Canadian Consulate. Once we had our passports back we went to the Indian Embassy to apply for our Indian visa. The harbour is open to the north and quite a bit of swell comes in making it uncomfortable at times, specially anchored close to the back wall and getting backwash from the waves, particularly with the high tides we experienced. The Sultans mini cruiseliner was tied up on one pier just in front of us together with the 3 times as big Special Forces support boat with its stowed landing craft, runabouts, helicopter pad, bristling with radars, antennas, lookout posts, etc. etc. We did not see the Sultan himself in person tho his portrait is up in every public building. He has done a lot for his country since coming to power in 1970, going from camels to computers is no mean feat. Marvellous what a little bit of oil money can do. Good road system and therefore improved transport; a couple of good harbours needed for all their imported food supply and cars/4wheel drives for their new roads; water conservation and irrigation systems; new buildings; employment for the men; education up to College or University for all children; improved health care; improved wealth, or course. We have not seen any beggars or people looking for handouts in the markets. We're really not sure what will happen when either the Sultan resigns, dies or is otherwise removed, or the oil runs out and they supposedly only have reserves for another 15 years at the current rate. They are now trying to encourage investment and tourism, but we all know that tourists, in hordes, ruin a country. Apart from that I'm not sure what they really have to offer between nice beaches down south around Salalah, the busy metropolis of Muscat up north and wadi's green with banana plantations somewhere in between.
Had another lovely sail, from Muscat to Bombay. A beam breeze for most of the time, for the first couple of days from the south instead of north as was predicted. Did our best sail of 136Nm in 24 hours. Only changed sails on the last couple of days when we had to put up the light air spinnaker.
At one point we took all sails down in order to get our first close up look of a whale, a sperm, nearly 60 feet long. Phil climbed up the mast for a better view of him while he just stooged around for close on 3/4 hour before he dove - we did not see him come up again. What with dolphins playing at the bow, sharks swimming behind the boat, Whales having a look we feel that we are in the zoo and that they are just as interested in us as we are in them and that is a real nice way to view the other occupants of this planet. Had a sickly tern land aboard and altho we tried for 2 days to feed and water it, nothing seemed to help, so it died. About 100Nm off the Indian coast, came across the first of numerous oil wellheads which stretch for 40 odd miles north and all the way in to the coast. Sailing past these during the day was quite O.K., but to be in amongst them during the night with so many varying lights was really something else. Both of us were up watching for a lot of the time. One thing that really spooked us until we could figure it out, was this line of moving lights, about 30-40 small fishing boats with a white light fore and aft, all in a line, boldly marching thru between the oil platforms in front of us. Left Muscat lunchtime, October 30, arriving off Bombay on morning, November 8, a trip of 920Nm. There was little ocean swell, pleasant temperature day and night, real enjoyable sail. The cyclone was on the other side of India in the Bay of Bengal but it made us nervous anyway and the mild adverse winds from it only found us soon after anchoring in Bombay (or Mumbai as it is now called).
It seems to us that the attitude they have in Mumbai is that if they wait long enough the problem will give up and go away. Patience is the order of the day, but it took us 4 hours to get permission to enter the harbour and anchor on our own without having an agent or a pilot on board. They only get about 5 private sail boats here in a year and the authorities don't really know how to handle the situation. Quite soon after anchoring, a big, heavy, high-sided Customs boat with a dozen people on board came along and wanted to tie up to us. Quickly realized that was no-go, so just dropped off 4 of their people and idled around until all the paperwork had been completed and our boat searched - even went up front and gave the sail bags a gentle kick or two - quite friendly and courteous. We then had to wait, and wait, and wait for Immigration. Next day we went ashore and tried to phone Immigration, that didn't work out so went back to the boat and called by radio. About an hour later we were given a telephone number, 2 names, plus permission for Phil to go ashore to phone and arrange to meet with these people. Neither of them were in the office, call back at 1500. Around 1800 Phil finally came back to the boat with our passports stamped and shore passes which have to be renewed every 7 days. We have heard since that this is not uncommon outside Cochin.
In the meantime we enjoyed the fireworks display in the evening and once legal, went ashore and wandered around the area at night watching more firecrackers and holiday festivities, lights flashing, candles burning, temples all lit up with people praying, chanting or singing. We had arrived at "Diwali" a big happy Hindu festival, also marking the start of their new year. Many of the shops had sales on, small-holder stalls set up on either side of the pavement leave a narrow tunnel down the middle for the tremendous crowd to hustle it's way thru, half of which spills out onto the roadway for the big double-decker buses, cars, taxis, bikes and carts to evade. All the vehicles are badly lit or with no lights, of course, they drive on the other side of the street here. Yes, there is the total bombardment of sight, sound and smell, but it is also a city that is alive. Indians have strong family ties and many get together at this time, so probably the place was more crowded that normal but you wouldn't actually notice.
We finally were able to get in contact with Prem (1st officer on tanker in Salalah), whose marriage to Beena, we had come to attend. He was leaving the next day by plane for his home town, near Cochin, where the wedding was to take place, at Beenas family home in the same village, but reiterated that we should try to make it down there.
We spent half the next day trying to get on a train which was already fully booked with a waiting list of 160. Being a tourist with foreign currency sometimes pays off as we were able to go back first thing the next day and get a ticket for 2 second-class sleepers thru a "tourist quota" system that the railway has on the trains but which can only be issued the day before travel. Then had to try and organise for Illawong to be looked after. We have been given honourary membership at the Royal Bombay Yacht Club but have not been able to connect with any of the sailors there or even anyone with helpful information for our situation. So we had to rely on an Indian fellow who sleeps onboard another yacht anchored close by, but who does not speak english and Phil went thru a harrowing morning trying to get the message across to him thru various means. In the end, all we could do was put things below, shut and lock everything up, including the dinghy, keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best.
The train. Old, rickety, uncomfortable (about an inch of padding, better than the wooden slat seats in the "womens" compartment), but it was still exciting to be going, even 2 hours behind schedule, knowing the trip to take around 37 hours. The carriage is divided into compartments seating 6 with 2 more across an open aisle, converting to 8 sleepers at night. The first evening, night and most of the next day we were on the 2 seat side which meant we both had windows and could look out, eat (we had packed food and water) or sleep as we liked. The next night we were moved to our proper beds which suited us as they were a bit longer, going across instead of down the carriage. We had our trusty map of India and followed the train route southeast, all the way across the continent to the outer suburbs of Madras before turning southwest for Cochin. It was a pity that so much of the trip was at night but we still saw a lot of countryside that we had not expected. Towards Madras, hilly, forests, crops and drier areas - towards Cochin and the west coast, it was mostly flat, rice fields, coconuts, tropical forest and water, water, water. Many very wide riverbeds thruout, not full but certainly flowing water. We were met at the station (train was 4 hours late) and taken an hours drive out of Cochin to the 200 year old family home where we met up with Prem, a lot of his family and a refreshing green coconut drink, before going on to the nearby hotel he had organised. They used to have a matriarchal system in the State of Kerala so the house belonged to Prems mother, houses next door belong to her sisters. This house was oblong in shape with rooms along the long sides, a central open square with no roof, verandah on 3 sides, doors everywhere it seemed all for natural flowthru ventilation and carving all around the outside walls. The verandah at one end has now been walled in and a brick kitchen added on that end. There is a well from which they draw drinking water by bucket and 3 ponds in different corners of the yard each for a different cleaning purpose, clothes, bodies, dishes. The house has been closed up for the last 18 years so no attempt has been made to modernise it at all. No running water, open cooking fire using dried coconut tree leaves, stem and/or nut. Huge family size urns for cooking rice, their staple diet. Julia learned to shred dried coconut sitting on a stool 300mm high. The meals, all of which we ate with the family, consisted of rice with a number of different flavourings, spicy, hot, sweet, pickles - they use a wide variety of spices - deep fried banana slices, and a fresh banana all served on a green steam-cleaned banana leaf. For breakfast the rice was substituted with a couple of steamed rice flour cakes. All mixed up and eaten with the fingers of the RIGHT hand, once eaten enough, simply fold the leaf over. Outside to wash the hands, throw the banana leaves to the crows - leaves very little washing up. Drinks were mostly sweet tea with milk, boiled water or a watery sourmilk/yoghurt (bitter rather than sour but great to cool the mouth after the hot and spicy). Prems father had had a heart attack a few months before and so the ritual of Prem and Beena "tying the knot" was carried out in Bombay where both families lived so we did not see that. Father was not well enough to travel and only at the last minute did Prems mother make it after being sick with cerebral malaria.
The day before the wedding, friends, relatives and many people from the village came to visit Prem, and to Beenas house too I suspect, to give their blessings. In the evening we went with Prem to his family's Hindu temples for a short ceremony. Prems Bombay friends got together for a northern Hindu tradition to wash away sins ('prank time') and mixed up a sticky mess of tumeric +++, in which he was smothered all over turning a bright yellow. This then demanded a dunking in the pond before it could really start to burn the skin off. On the actual wedding day, there was the cleansing ritual where each elder family member came before Prem who would give a symbolic gift (banana and flower wrapped in a betel leaf) and touch their feet while the elder gave their blessing and took away his past sins, cleansing him for the start of this new life. Prem had a special white skirt wraparound embroidered in gold and shirt outfit. The women all wore beautiful saris with magnificent gold jewellery on toes, fingers, arms, waist, neck, ears, nose. Julia declined the loan of a 'half-sari' but was given a stick-on forehead spot, yellow to match clothing, which lasted until the heat got the better of her and then inadvertently wiped off. The wedding throughout the day was all carefully timed to ensure everything matched the required astrology predictions. Around 0900 we were driven over to the house where Beenas family were congregating and when Prem arrived both families and friends walked to Beenas house where he was welcomed at the gate and given a bouquet of flowers. There was a walkway stretching from the gate to an 8ft square, slightly raised, covered dias (erected just outside the main door to the house) which was totally decorated with brightly coloured festivity paper decorations, flowers, where incense burned and token gift offerings of bananas, flowers, rice, spices, etc, were laid out. Guest seating was on either side of the walkway and both sides of the dais and this whole area was covered with tarpaulins, as was the large adjacent eating area. Prem proceeded up the walkway to the dais and when everyone was settled, Beena, looking absolutely beautiful in a colourful sari and bedecked with gold jewellery from head to toes, frangipane in her hair and entwined down the long plait past her waist, hands painted in the traditional manner, then emerged from the house to join him on the dais. Here the couple again went thru the cleansing ceremony with each others family elders, and they exchanged rings and gifts. Quite a solemn ceremony, short and to the point after which, the couple, together with their family helpers walked a complete circuit of the dais and disappeared into the house. Here the women seemed to take over and again in the traditional manner, sat the couple down and, Julia included, hand fed them each (Beena first) a spoonful of milk and then a piece of banana. Next, Prems family and friends were invited to sit and eat a meal, similar rice and flavourings, then it was Beenas family and friends turn to eat. Once this was over we were free to mix and talk to as many as could speak english, quite a number of the young adults and a lot of the children. Around 1400 there was a very emotional departure from Beenas (leaving her family and becoming one with her husbands family) and Prems people walked back to where the cars had been parked at the other house. The whole setting had been very delightful with many palm trees giving lots of shade over sandy walkways which had been swept for the procession, in amongst lovely century old wooden houses with gardens of hibiscus and other shrubs in flower, and the occupants of the other houses coming out to watch. At Prems house there was a welcoming ceremony for Beena and a red mark indicating she was now a married women was imprinted in the central parting above her hairline, by Prems mother and at a set time the couple entered the house. Again, here the couple were given milk and banana. They had professional photographers for the day and altho we were guests they did take additional notice of these "foreigners", being there in this outback village to start off with, taking part in this traditional Hindu wedding ceremony, eating in the Indian style (we were thankful for the tuition given by Prems family).
Prems family also made sure we were seated at the front for the wedding ceremony and closeby when ever anything was going on so that we could see everything and generally join in. It was a wonderful privilege to be there. With the main ceremony over the rest of the day was fairly relaxed. We were taken to have a look over another of the old houses which was very interesting. By this time, we were both not feeling very well, coming down with a flu, so we excused ourselves and went back to the hotel to sleep. Next day, we joined 3 of Prems friends and 2 cousins and went on a backwater boat trip thru canals and lakes, passed areas which had been reclaimed for rice growing and coconut plantations. Spent that night at Cochin and next day caught the train back to Bombay. A number of the wedding party were on the same train in a different carriage, we got together on occasion but we were both too tired and sick with the flu to enjoy it much. To get onto the train we had to see the station master to be included on the emergency quota they have on all trains. This we did and in a carriage sleeping 8 we had 13 people. We had one berth, another elderly couple on another berth and a family of 4 sharing another berth. We did go back on a different line and saw something of the "hill station" areas - higher, drier, cooler, more forests but altho it was a few hours shorter, again, most of it was at night. The train stopped outside of Bombay and we had to change to a local train right at early morning peak hour traffic time. Even the first class (10 times more expensive) carriages were crowded. We didn't have much luggage and managed to hop on the train just as it was moving out - no time to read the writing on the side of the carriage "first class, women only". Next station Phil left Julia there with the luggage and managed to squeeze into the mens section but at least we had got on.
While getting over the flu we ordered some parts from the U.S. but since DHL managed to stuff up the duty free entry by paying $600US duty and penalties on goods worth $340 + delivery we have wasted the whole of December sitting in Mumbai, attempting to get the parcels out of DHL without paying the import duty which we had been told by a Customs rep., was not applicable. Julia finally got DHL to give us the parcels for nothing after a lot of negotiations so in late January we finally got to go travelling inland for three weeks.
Mumbai is really getting crowded now joining us is a South African boat, whose crew flew home for Christmas, and an Australian boat with whom we shared an enjoyable Christmas dinner, then on Boxing Day, another boat with American and Scot crew arrived. Usually only 4-5 boats stop here in a year and since we arrived 4 other yachts have come and gone. Here we are given honorary membership in the Royal Bombay Yacht Club which is 150yrs old and quite "old British" and totally Indian and real nice to sit and relax in. Mumbai harbour has to rate as one of the dirtiest around with the water being very brown and muddy and oily. Until you get used to the dinghy dock it is a bit daunting with its 5m tides and the occasional swell. India is a country that we like despite itself and have enjoyed the people we have met here, their generosity and friendship is wonderful and hard to repay.
Just before Christmas Aussie Bob and Phil were asked to be in a 30 second TV advert for the 100yr anniversary of a soap company. They and 8 others played the part of scientists testing this new soap product and Phil ended up being chosen as the head scientist, speaking the only line in that segment of the ad. Hair crimped and styled with rollers, mutton chop sideburns, makeup and all. So along with a swelled head as an actor in an 8 second segment of the ad he was paid 5,000Rps ($140US) for 8 hours work. Quite an interesting day out they both reckon and certainly the easiest money Phil ever earned. Maybe from Mollywood to Hollywood who knows.
Well we did 4055Nm in 1996 and have done a total of 16350Nm so far and even managed to live on budget this year and am looking forward to getting in quite a bit of sailing in 1997.

1995-12-31T14:33:00.000-08:00

YEAR THREE - THE ILLAWONG CHRONICLE
1995 - Southward Bound: Turkey to Port Suez??? Oh Well Next Year

Illawong spends her third year still drifting in the Med.
As we had to renew our Turkish Visa we left Turkey on Friday, December 30th and as there was not much wind we motorsailed across the bay to hide out in the islands until we could get across to Rhodes on a week day. The weather was not very nice, rainy, overcast with thunderstorms and windy but managed to spend a lovely few days on our own, working on the boat, sewing cushion covers, baking bread and chocolate cake and generally enjoying ourselves cooped up in the boat where we had a very quiet New Year drink. Julia went for a swim on New Years Day to put a foam pad under the instrument log so Phil could pull it out for cleaning without getting water into the boat. The water was rather cold but she figured that if Vancouverites can do it, so could she. It will be better sailing in warmer waters. When the weather chart looked right and we were ready to leave we poked our nose out but were stopped at the entrance of the bay by large waves so turned around and checked out a few other anchorages in the area and finally settled on going back Tersane, the one we had just left. The one problem with a safe, secure anchorage as that you have no clear idea what is really happening outside of the bay. Spent another few days here and finally set off again and motorsailed to Rhodes. Anchored in the outer harbour that night and next day went on into the main harbour, tied up bow to at the town dock with a stern anchor and booked in with the authorities. Spent all day orienting ourselves and finding the better places to shop for things we could not buy in Turkey. During the next couple of nights and days had to fight of the neighbouring boat that kept bearing down on us every time the wind changed or picked up, fend off a boat that came in with their engine not working and a fishing boat that drifted down onto our anchor rode. Phil was quick enough to let the rope loose and the fishing boat managed to get away without doing any damage apart from shifting our anchor. We then organised a fill-up with diesel which also meant buying extra jerry cans to enable us to take their required minimum of 300 litres and tying up at a regular dock so the tanker could virtually drive up along side. Getting off the little town dock was easy but getting the anchor in was not. We managed to get the rope locked tight around the propeller, so this time Phil had to go in for a swim. This is also the day we found out that this whole rotten experience was costing us about 5 times what it would have done in December. We did get to phone and speak to our families. At first light the next day we left glad to be heading for an anchorage rather than a dock.
As it was not comfortable out sailing we diverted to Serce (11Nm), instead of going direct to Marmaris (20Nm) and spent several days here waiting for more favourable weather. Marmaris has a big bay and not always good shelter so we needed a few days of clear, calm weather in order to feel relaxed about even going there. It was quite rolly and very gusty where we were anchored and so spent the first few days juggling 2 anchors to keep us off the rocks first on one side of the bay and then the other. Eventually got fed up with that so when the weather calmed somewhat and we had half an hour to spare between making a crumpet mixture, we moved to the other end of the bay where there were about 20 small fishing boats. The holding was not good and so after going backwards and forwards, this way and that missing fishing boats, the rocks, floating lines and trying to get two anchors set, with the wind now picking up and Julia getting a good workout trying to keep the boat safe, Phil went rowing and we tied a line from the stern to the rocks on one side of the bay and another from the bow to the rocks on the other side, put weights on them so they would sink sufficiently for the fishing boats to go over the top and there we sat. Meanwhile, 2 hours have passed, our crumpets have risen and fallen and when cooked, acted a bit like rubber but we were too cold, wet and hungry to care by that stage. It was so much calmer at that end, further away from the entrance and less area for waves to build up. This anchorage is recommended in our Pilot book for bad weather and have since heard that every year boats go aground here because of the bad holding. Over our time in Turkey and Greece we learnt to take Heikell's recommendations with a fistful of salt. Our decision to tie right across the bay was good as it got real windy for a couple of days before we could finally leave.
With the wind blowing straight out the entrance of the bay we untied the boat from the rocks, took some time to get the boat reorganised, putting the dinghy on board, stowing all the ropes and anchors and making everything secure. It was just as well we took the time as just outside the mouth of the bay the wind strengthened and came from abeam and with only double reefed main and 2 foresails up, we managed to get knocked flat, again, this time forcing some water in through the ports. Really, this is not a habit we are trying to cultivate. It did not look good for going on to Marmaris but neither did we want to go back into that bay and have to stuff around with anchoring again, so we pushed on and during the course of the day it calmed down and we were able to anchor outside Marmaris marina. We were very lucky as it stayed calm during the night and all the next day while we went ashore to check-in with the authorities and do some necessary shopping. We did not trust the weather further so early next morning we left for Fethiye. It was calm until we got outside Marmaris Bay and then it started to blow from the S.E. - exactly the way we were headed. We did not know of any alternative hidey hole so had to press on into wind and building waves, using the motor and what little sail we could have up without being heeled too far over. It was really crazy, at times we would be screaming along at 6+ knots with water streaming down the side deck and then at others, when the wind died off for no apparent reason, we'd be crawling along at .7 knots butting waves and seemingly going up and down in the same spot. The poor old motor sure got a working out, not to mention the crew. It took us 10 hours to do 44 miles arriving back at Tersane, cold, wet, miserable, exhausted, hungry, frustrated and any other descriptive word that comes to mind. Darn Med sailing. Next morning a Northerly gale was forecast. Our safe, secure anchorage is only open to the NNW so we opted to motor the 2 miles across the bay to an inlet with good northerly shelter. It must have been really good shelter or else the winds just didn't eventuate because after 2 days we left there still without any wind. Finally arrived back into Fethiye, 100Nm later, on January 22 after what we came to think of as a wasted trip. The money we saved on buying duty free diesel in Rhodes was used up by dockage fees. We had used the engine the whole way around, using up more duty free diesel. We didn't like Rhodes, we didn't like being ripped off, we couldn't buy everything we wanted and we didn't like the weather. Boy, what a gripe.
Back in Fethiye we find that the food prices have either halted their upward spiral or in some instances have fallen and the exchange rate is still very good. And a 19 page fax from our lovely bank manager bringing us up to date with all our financial commitments!! that now have to be sorted out back in Canada. The weather for the rest of January was not all that bad but again, inside this bay, I'm sure we are shielded from the brunt of it. There is a lot of snow on the mountain tops all around us and at times when you can see through the coal fire smog, they really do look lovely and crisp and ready for skiing. It gets down to 0 deg. overnight and around 10 - 15 deg. during the day. We kept busy swapping books and charts, music tapes, and safe anchorage stories with the other boats before we all part company around the end of February. Phil is also into helping others with computer problems. As well as still getting work done on the boat. That is a never ending story.
Learning only after the funeral that Julia's father had passed away late in November, and then in February her mother had had a very bad accident, Julia decided she would go to Australia for a visit.
We left Fethiye in early March and headed out for the Marmaris wholesale store to buy a lot of different types of canned and non-perishable goods to try out before having to really stock up big for the Red Sea later on. That done we went to Rhodos again, this time to anchor in the outer harbour well away from the officials, and did all the shopping that we could then high-tailed it out of there for Simi. For the next week our log reads "Overcast, Rain and Thunderstorms, Viscous Gusts into Bay, No Wave Buildup, Glad to be in Good protected Anchorage". We later heard that during this time one of the boats who had wintered with us in Fethiye, was blown up onto rocks in an anchorage near Serce and ended up being towed back to Marmaris for $US22,000 damage repairs. Luckily they were insured. So much for safe sailing in the Med. A lot of world cruisers don't like this ocean and we can understand why.
Well after Simi, it was time to head north along the Turkey coast to Ayvalik where there is some really good protected bays safe enough to leave the boat while we went to Istanbul for Julia to fly to Australia and where Phil could while away the time doing more boat maintenance or otherwise keep himself usefully occupied. As it turned out we had some great sailing running north before some pretty strong winds and can say that sailing downwind is a hell of a lot easier than the other way round but not necessarily more comfortable. We did 230 miles in 7 days anchoring each night with 4 days of that having daily runs of 50-60 miles mostly sailing. Had our last stop in Greece to get our passports stamped, after spending the night anchored outside the harbour in quite rough conditions, motored into the inner harbour to stop for 15 min to get stamped out and quietly got charged by the Gr@#*^% officials US.$25.00 for tying up. After a bit of arguing and Phil walking out of the office, one official said "Comeback, we will discuss this" so like a fool Phil went back and ended up in a 6-8 / 1 rugby scrum. They got their money, we got our passport stamps and left forever. The lady at immigration looked out at the seas building in the strait between Mitlini and Turkey and commented on it being a bit rough to go out and we politely stated that it was not so bad. We did not say that to stay would have been worse than anything mother nature could throw at us but we both thought it. We certainly had an interesting sail to Ayvalik in building seas. Half an hour after we anchored we were swinging around on the anchor with winds gusting to at least 40kn. When the boat heals over at anchor to the extent that mugs slide across the table we know that the wind is really getting up. The noise can be quite impressive as well. Once again we were mighty glad to be back in Turkey where we knew we would be welcome.
Off by bus to Istanbul after anchoring Illawong in the middle of a completely protected bay where she sat happily waiting for Phil to return. Istanbul was one of those cities that just works. Everything was easy to get to by bus and every time we went out we stumbled upon where we wanted to go with no problems. On top of this, it is an extremely interesting metropolis, very much alive and we enjoyed it immensely.
Phil had always wanted to take the boat up to Istanbul and we did one better by also going out into the Black Sea. So now at the middle of May, with full crew compliment, we again had some really good sailing days going up the rest of the coast - sailing up the Dardanelles was something really special - exhilarating and somewhat frightening at the time, 6.5kns ground speed against the current with only our small staysail set with gale force tail winds, but still unique. We really treasured a couple of towns in the Sea of Marmara. Karabiga, the cleanest we have ever seen (even the Harbour Master picked up his cigarette stub and put it in the bin), being made welcome with fishermen buying us tea's, giving us a large fish and school kids coming down to talk to us after only 3 years of learning english. It is incredible how well they spoke english and we told them to tell their teacher what an excellent job he did. We later met another Canadian yacht who met the kids and left the same instruction to congratulate the teacher. Anchored off Pasalimani Island for a week and then on to Erdek where we went shopping in it's really good friendly market.
Yesilkoy, where we tied up while visiting Istanbul sort of grew on us after a while - we were there 2 weeks having our failed engine heat exchanger fixed. A large hole corroded through which we had welded up but after it was returned the heat of welding had caused the collapse of the water passage/exhaust passage separation so that meant a new heat exchanger. The Vetus agent in Istanbul had offered to import one for us or to organise one through Vetus Holland, at no cost to him, so we organised that Julia's brother Bob would pick one up for us in Holland which meant the new unit only costs $C750 ouch!!! really pissed at Vetus for not accepting any responsibility as they had changed and improved the design 2 years after we bought the engine but pleased with the assistance given by their agent who agreed that Vetus are lacking in after sales service. Anyway, visiting Istanbul again was marvellous. Took around 30-45 mins to go in by train from Yesilkoy. So many things to see, places to go, we just did not have enough time. Got to leave some things for when you return, right??
We had to motor up the Bosphorus against the very strong current. While sitting in a number of anchorages for lengthy periods of time the boat had developed a huge amount of growth on the bottom and propeller. When we left Istanbul to go up the Bosphorus the boat was very sluggish and so we had to go in for a swim to clean it as much as possible. The current in the Bosphorus is up to 4 kns in places and after the quick clean we could do 4.5kns so that was ok but it took us a long time to clear some of the promontories sticking out into the waterway. We made it, always listening for any falter in the motor as at times rock walls were right behind the boat. The cost was that because the water around, and in particular south of, Istanbul is very dirty we apparently, during our swim, picked up some bug which made us sick with fever and stomach problems on and off for 7+ weeks. So altho we say we went into the Black Sea, we only sailed as far as Sile, 20Nm east of the Bosphorus entrance. This was a relatively large harbour in which we could anchor in the middle with no charges made. Each time we went out sailing it was very uncomfortable and we were seasick (mainly contributable to the Istanbul water bug) so we decided to leave the boat in Sile and travel east by bus rather than sail to eastern Turkey. While here it was extremely fascinating to meet up with a Russian yacht, the first yacht to ever come sailing from Volgograd, they spoke of changes taking place within their country and how they affect the people. They sailed everywhere to curb costs and asked about our 20hp motor (150Kg) as theirs was an ex-submarine motor, 20hp also but weighing in at a stately 1200Kg. While in the area also watched a Ukrainian Catamaran being sailed up the Bosphorus, this they did every month delivering sails, made in Ukraine to sell in Turkey.
The bus trip out to the eastern border of Turkey was a real highlight. We met on the bus a Turkish family living in Austria and coming home to Terme for their annual holiday. They invited us to their home and after seeing Samsun from the bus window, big dusty and little to see as a modern city, we decided to carry on to Terme anyway so it ended up that we stayed with this family for one night. It didn't matter that they were just arriving on holiday, mother, son, sister in wheel chair and younger sister, mother said we were welcome to join with family. Got off bus to alot of confusion but accepted by family members and taken into 87yr old grandfathers, 200yr old clapboard house with yard awash with water because of massive flooding that had occurred a few days before. This was no problem met everyone and immediate family off to organise food for lunch which we eat sitting on the floor on cushions with a large 1 metre round tray that was the table full of various types of food. Every one helps them selves to the food from central plates with a fork or spoon. There is a lot less washing up that way. Then off to meet most of the 19 uncles in the town with businesses varying from restaurants to radio/television repairs. On finding out that we had not been to a Hammam (Turkish bath) it was organised that they closed the hammam for us so that Julia and I could have a bath together. It is always segregated into male and female times and is strictly forbidden for mixed bathing to take place but Problem Yok (no problem) as long as we were married the person in charge let us have a nice relaxing time with unlimited hot/cold water to pour over ourselves using small hand bowls. Felt much better after that and then had to decide where we would stay, either at grandfathers house or with an uncle. With the arrived family staying at grandfathers we decided to stay with an uncle and ended up eating the 5pm meal at one uncles place, visiting a couple of other relations for tea, hot milk, having a song played over local radio station for us at another place and then 10pm meal and sleeping at another uncles house. It was real interesting and enjoyable but being the centre of attention continuously gets a bit tiring. Left the next morning to go to Trabzon where we stayed 3 nights. Went up to Sumela Monastery which really hangs on a cliff face the first day and heard about a trip to the Kadirga summer festival held in the mountains near Trabzon. Here 5 villages celebrate the move to the mountain pastures. The only foreign tourists at the festival were the 10 of us in a mini bus that wound its way up over gravel mountain roads hanging precariously on the edge of steep valleys alot of the time with good wash-a-ways because of the recent rains. Phil's sort of back road that he enjoys driving around on but not necessarily being a passenger in a mini bus on. Arrived to a car park packed with vehicles as Turks come from all over to celebrate with their own village. All the women wore their traditional dresses of incredible colours and elaborate designs, with aprons, outer coverings etc. with scarves covering hair but no one in this region covered their faces. It was a cool damp day with low cloud swirling around us and alternatively covering the hill top and then clearing to show large groups of people gathering in various places through out the day. We had taken lunch up with us and while we were eating this a family in front of us kept offering what they had and when they were finished gave us grapes, bread and honey comb sweet they had left over. They then indicated that we should follow them up to the top of the hill. As we had come from that way we were unsure of what they wanted but as they made it plain that they wanted us to go with them (not alot of english spoken here) we accepted that we were now adopted by them. At the top of the hill they sat and waited and we were expected to do the same. When we wandered off the young daughter would come after us to see we didn't go too far. Eventually it all made sense as way off in the mist they would point to something that we finally decerned to be a long line of dancing men with a large crowd following behind. These people were from Kasimagzi village one of the five and had danced their way across the mountain pastures for about 5 -6 hours from the village to the festival. We were now adopted members of this village so we walked back down to the festival with these people. A line of men dancing in front and another line of the woman dancing behind. Julia and her red hair is always a hit and this lovely little old lady from the village gave her a 2 mtr long waistband hand woven in the colours of the village. From then on as we walked around this was pointed out and commented on whenever someone from the village noticed it. Again we were asked to stay with a family back in the village but because we still had a hotel room in Trabzon we could not stay with them. During the day men got together and did the traditional dances but not the woman. It was a shame actually as with the beautiful colouring and costumes a group of woman dancing would have been lovely to watch. Here we met Lea and Clare a couple of adventurous young women from Belgium heading for Iran. As we were going the same way we travelled together for a few days, visiting Artvin up in the mountains, squeezing into a full minibus to get to Kars to visit Ani right on the Azerbijan border (what was USSR no mans land). Kars was a disaster area with torn up streets, extremely dusty and dirty. The people here did not see very many tourists at all and I think a little wary of foreigners in the region. This was deep into the Kurdish area of Turkey and there is mistrust and definite problems through out this region. The Kurds we meet though in general were very friendly and wanted to talk about Kurdistan and their problems but were also very cautious. If you mentioned kurdistan you were immediately befriended as having an understanding of what they wanted but it appears to us that it really is an improbable dream as it would encompass about 5 countries and have little likelihood of surviving on their own without massive aid from foreign countries for a long time. Turkey's method of suppressing the people to kerb their wants will not work any better here than it has worked in other countries of the world. One day hopefully they will see this and try and work more with the Kurds to solve the problem. On the other hand terrorist acts cause this suppression so both sides have to be ready to compromise and talk. From Kars we then moved on to Dogubayazit to see Ishak Pasha's palace and for Lea and Clare to go on into Iran. They each wore a Chadore (full islamic womans covering) during their 3 weeks in Iran and had a wonderful time travelling but were glad to get back to Turkey to eat some more interesting food. They reckon that we are brave sailing around in a yacht but we both think that they are quite brave in doing things just as interesting and inviting of hassles and problems. From there we went to Van. The first week of our trip we were both well but unfortunately Phil started to get sick again into the second week and by the time we got to Van both of us succumbed. All we saw of the town was a hotel room. This got a bit much after 3 days so we hopped a bus straight back to Istanbul - took 26 hours to do 1650Km for $C40.00 each - all the while taking anti-diahrea tablets. Took another week to get over that. Apart from that problem we have been very healthy. Didn't go for another swim until we were well south of the Sea of Marmara, by that time it was August and the water was still too cold to stay in for very long. Summer was quite a lot cooler around Istanbul, along the north shore and eastern provinces, than along the south coast of Turkey.
Sailing back down the coast we called in to a lot of places missed on the way up. Also did a few trips inland to see ancient ruin sites, Pirene, Miletus, Didyma, of course, Ephesus which covers such a large area and has some beautiful stone work. The theatre, library facade and just walking along the streets still in existence after so many years was great. And then a long one day 500km round trip to go to Aphrodisia which entailed bussing, hitching and ended in a 14Km walk to get back to the boat around 2am. Left a 7am in the morning and got to the site around lunch time. Was a bit disappointed as so much of the site was closed off to tourists and when we wandered off the main track were pointedly told to stay on the track by a guard. I obviously showed my displeasure at this and again wandered off the path to at least have a birds eye look at the theatre. The guard then came down and explained that the site was under the control of an American archaeologist who was not a nice man as he put it. This made it clear as 99% of all sites in Turkey you are free to wander around and explore but in our western world there is great delight in fencing things in. The guard was very apologetic about the director and that as it was lunch time and the director would be on the other side of the site he gave us a guided tour of all the areas you could not get access to which helped to make the trip worthwhile. Bus and hitchhiked then back to Milas at 10pm. Told have to take taxi to boat so off hitchhiking and walking again. Initially picked up by truck who finally understood where we wanted to go, got there and then he turned around to go back the way he had come after dropping us off. We then eventually got picked up by a guy in a car who drove us past his turn off to the top of the pretty steep hill he reckoned would be too long a climb on foot, which it would have been. We always said that you can get where you want to go if you try but sometimes it can get pretty interesting in the doing. Each time we hitchhiked we were taken to where we should be to get bus etc rather than just where driver was going and no one ever accepted money from us. The longer we stayed in Turkey the more interested we got in exploring the ancient Roman cities and had some wonderful days roaming around ruins as there is so much visible history there.
On our way south stopped in Sigacik to look at a new anchor said to be very effective and now in use by a lot of the coastguards in the North Sea. A Turkey equivalent was available here for a good price so now we have 5 anchors on board all different ranging in size from 35Kg fisherman to 5Kg Danforth. The new 18Kg Bugel anchor is a large triangular piece of 16mm steel with a very sharp point that gets through weed and digs into rocks very well, good we think for the coral areas in the Red Sea and gives us a lot of versatility. While here we went into Seferihisar to its weekly market and once again enjoyed ourselves as well as being the only tourist in the area. It is a pleasure being able to buy things and not worry about being ripped off because you are a tourist. This happens in the main tourist areas and at any market recommended for tourists the vendors learn quickly that tourists really do pay ridiculous prices which overall does not really help the economy as vendors then want to get their own people paying these prices.
Julia's brother and family after touring Europe, planned to visit his wife's relatives on the Greek island of Samos, which is just off the Turkey coast, and come sailing with us for a while. As it turned out, we were not able to get together for a number of different reasons which was a real blow for all of us. Thankfully Bob was able to put the new heat exchanger on a ferry for us so Phil took a 4 hour bus ride to the pick up place but no one knew anything about the delivery. After a rather worrying time and a few phonecalls to Greece was told to come back later that evening to see a captain of one of the ferry boats. This was fine except it was not obvious, that because of bus schedules, he could then get back to the boat that day. As it turned out the part had been ferrying back and forth between Greece and Turkey for about 2 weeks waiting to be picked up. That evening the ferry, the Captain and the part arrived and Phil collected the part without further fuss. Again realising that you can get anywhere in Turkey at nearly any time with a bit of effort and the help of locals waving busses down on the highway at midnight to get you onto a express bus and he arrived home around 5am much to Julia's relief.
We then continued on down to Marmaris for a "Red Sea stock up" of the canned goods previously taste tested only to find some no longer available - so much for forward planning. The substitutes will surely be as good, right. Then to Fethiye again to order boat parts for delivery in Cyprus, and catch up with mail and news. That only took a month of organising. Our depth meter had not been working for a couple of months by this time except for an occasionally flash of the depth reading or by holding in two buttons simultaneously to get a reading. Neither truly practical as we entered anchorages so we had been doing some quite blind sailing not knowing water depths. This obviously meant a new depth sounder. Some sail handling gear was becoming urgently needed as up till now the staysail sheet (rope which adjusts the sail and which takes the full load of the wind pressure on the sail) was simply attached to a wooden handrail and this was driving Phil to sit and stare at this attachment every time the wind blew hard which you will realise was pretty often if you have been reading all these letters. The Jib sheet was attached strongly enough but in the wrong place and we decided that upon leaving the Med we should at least try to get the sailing part of ILLAWONG finally organised. All this meant OUCH!!! to our budget. All in all 1995 turned out to be a total disaster as we completely spent 1996 funds with the final stocking up that we were doing and the expected cost of $C450.00 to go through the canal. Oh well it will be cheap going down the Red Sea, if nothing else breaks, if we don't travel inland and we catch fish to eat.
Left Fethiye towards the end of November and went to Kekova, an anchorage we had enjoyed the year before. Spent a couple more quiet weeks there, then our final move was to Finike so we could spend all the Turkish money we had left. On December 6 we left Turkey headed for Cyprus. All in all we had enjoyed Turkey for close on 17 months.
To start off with, we had a fairly easy sail from Turkey towards Cyprus, very light wind, cold but sunny then the wind turned to blow directly from Cyprus and with the current that was running we "couldn't get there from here" so we went South. The wind died so then we motored to Cyprus. Then just as we got to the south coast of Cyprus a squall came through so we hove-to for a couple of hours. In hind-sight we should have just sailed it through because it took 5 hours of motor sailing to gain back the distance we were blown off course during that time but neither of us could be bothered to get wet and try and sail in the squalls. Plus Phil was getting more worried about that staysail fitting the closer he got to the new equipment. It was too late to go on to Larnaca marina where they charge exorbitant fees for overtime (which starts at 2pm week days) so we snuck into Limassol commercial harbour and anchored over the weekend then went up to Larnaca on the Monday. Took us 5 days to do 200 odd miles. Raced around Larnaca and got all our shopping done (finished stocking up for the Red Sea) and overseas duty free parcels picked up and left again a week later. An interesting side line here as ever since we received our new depth sounder the original one has worked perfectly without missing a reading at all. At least the Gods above have a sense of humour but I must admit that at times mine does disappear.
Again started off mildly but then weather deteriorated. This time we did sail but were still blown well south of our track. Phil was really paranoid now as he had the new equipment on board stored just a couple of metres from those wooden handrails. It seemed as though each time we set out we were headed for Port Said/Suez - maybe Illawong (or crew) was just hoping. Took 3 days to do 200 miles to Israel so I guess that was better. When we leave Israel for Egypt we are going to have to do even better as we have to fax our expected time of arrival to the Suez Canal agent before we leave. It's 120Nm away. (we didn't do much better).
We had to call the Israel Navy from 30Nm offshore on the VHF to give information on the boat and crew - standard procedure - then half an hour later they made a general call for the boat in such-and-such a location to call the Israel Navy. As we seemed to be the only boat around, we called in and had to go over the whole information rigamarole again. An hour later there was a small aircraft circling us - the Navy - who also called us via VHF for the same information, I guess they were able to verify our boat name as after about 4 circles they flew off. A couple of hours later a fast patrol boat came past to have another look at us. They were all very courteous and kind and welcomed us to Israel. We could choose our own spot once we got into the marina, it was very pleasant, quiet and clean there. Phil had to go to Ashdod, the next port north, to clear in through Customs. We were talking to an Israel chap who was having a wedding reception in the Marina, and he kindly offered to drive Phil to and from Ashdod and help with any language problems with all the officials. That was very kind and helpful of him.
Did not realize the amount of money flowing in this country. We have only seen a very small portion and maybe other places are different. Toys are everything - it seems that everybody who has a car also has a cellular phone (not just business cars) plus half the people on the busses use them, motorized parachute gliders up and down the beach, 4 wheel A.T.V.'s. Very few people walk, there are even 3 pushbikes in the marina for use by yachties. Of course, the nice, wide, treelined roads around here just beg for cars to drive on them, mind you, there is a lot of new construction in Ashkelon, houses, apartments, commercial buildings, whole residential areas, these roads go with that sort of development. The marina is very new only being opened early '95. 600 berths available and only about 25-30 being used at the moment. Plenty of fish, it's like an aquarium. Situated quite a way away from town, it's a good 1/2 hour walk to the nearest supermarket. At least it's uphill going and downhill coming back with the modest amount of shopping that we have to do. The weekly market is 45 mins away, mostly walking through park area which is nice, but the traffic jam to get into the parking area is something else. Mostly very good quality food but no better that Turkey and twice the price. Just as well we stocked up a lot before we came. The bread is not crash hot but we now have great Irish butter and as you know "butter makes it better".
The armed forces are very much in evidence, mostly unobtrusively. Over the time we have been here we have got used to the numerous "thunder claps" as the airforce planes pass through the sound barrier. For such a small country it really seems strange as they must already nearly be outside their borders before they hit that point. However, there is constant patrolling up and down their coastline by the planes, helicopters and patrol boats. It is good to hear on the radio, they are still constantly working towards peace in this whole area.
Had a quiet Christmas, didn't do anything or go anywhere special. Just our own lazy day, getting up late, bacon & eggs and hash browns for brekky, baked roast of pork and lots of vegetables for lunch around 3pm and a plate of weetbix plus chocolate cake and coffee for supper. And still suffered the next day from eating too much.
For New Year's eve, a party was organised in the 3 day old club house at the marina attended by the 6 liveaboard crews, plus the marina manager and wife, his deputy and a few other Israelis - all very casual, the wine, food and music flowed and a good time was had by all. Very multinational - French, German, New Zealand, England, Guatemala, 3 of the people were originally Danish, of course, us Aussie/Canuks as well as the Israelis. It was fun trying to sing songs in French, German and English, also finding hit parade songs that the Israelis knew.
Went to our very first Israeli wedding reception, held at the marina. It was a very casual affair, everyone was served drinks, sat where they wanted around tables set for 8 to 10 people, helped themselves to a buffet meal which was quite elaborate, danced to C.D.'s, congratulated the Bride & Groom and went home around 1am. The biggest difference was, because of the very strict religious laws pertaining to marriage in Israel, the couple avoided these laws by legally being married 3 weeks before in Cyprus. Apparently this is a very common occurrence. He is a naval architect - bought a 28 foot sailboat in England, sailed through the French canals to Gibraltar, on down the east African coast to Cape Verde Islands, Gambia and Senegal, then back home through the Med.
Travelled by bus to Jerusalem and stayed in our first "dorm type" accommodation which was interestingly unsegregated. Walked for miles around the city, the old walled city and the local surrounds. Very interesting buildings and places some of them, to stand up high and be able to see the surrounding areas, graveyards, suburbs, greenery was very good, but we have come away with truly mixed feelings about the City. Perhaps if we had spent more time we would have a different outlook. From there we took another bus south along the Dead Sea shore. No we did not go for a "float" or succumb to the cure-all mud baths. Instead, we climbed to the top of the pinnacle outcrop on which Massada sits. 600 inhabitants kept the Roman army at bay for a very long time till eventually defeat pending they all committed suicide rather than become slaves.
The haul-out here is still very expensive, but we were offered the use of some wet suits so went for a swim to scrape any barnacles and weed off the boat bottom. Need to be as clean as possible for our transit through the Suez Canal - still hope for a tail wind to give us that little bit extra. The suits made it somewhat warmer for swimming but very tiring just the same. Have to wear weights to counterbalance the buoyancy of the suits otherwise it's very difficult going underwater - once Julia tried with not enough weights and kept bobbing up against the hull like a cork. The bottom paint is still all intact so can wait a while longer before we really need to haul-out. Anyway, swimming, snorkelling, bottom scraping in the Red Sea is going to be a nice warm experience (Hopefully).
ILLAWONG has been going great ever since we left Israel, motoring and motorsailing along really well even when the winds have been against us. Ever since leaving Turkey, the boat always seemed to be able to head for Port Said easily but only trudge towards Israel. After a rather rough night when a fast moving frontal system passed over us and had a final WHOP at us and drove us back the way we had come (Phil was relaxed as he had fitted the new staysail and jib tracks and blocks) it was just before sunset (1.5 days late) during Ramadan when we tried calling our Port Said Agent, it took him quite some time to answer our call and also to organise the pilot, bad timing on our part. We were sure glad to have good charts to help us find out where we had to go. There is a lot of big traffic in them there waters. The buoyage numbering system was a little different from on our chart but the sequence looked right so in we went until we met up with the Harbour Pilot who came on board at the last moment when we knew where we were. He directed us to the Yacht Club which is located on an island enlarged by the dredged material from the Canal, situated between the original canal entrance and the newer exit for northbound traffic. Most of the Canal Authority personnel live on the island.
Our passports, complete with visa, were ready for us by 10 o'clock that night but tired, we had already gone to bed. Next day we took a free ferry across to the mainland and wandered around town. A large section is just like a huge market area of food, clothes, shoes, etc. which we found quite intriguing. It was suggested that we go back at night, which we did on Friday and boy, was the place alive and jumping - noisy, colourful, fun, fascinating. Not many tourists stop here, or in Suez either for that matter, and we were really singled out "Welcome to Port Said" Welcome to Egypt" "Welcome" "Welcome". Really wanted to stay longer but next day we had to be up early to make our Canal transit.
We were up early, yes, but the Pilot didn't arrive until 10.30am. Not being a strict Moslem, he ate his way down the Canal, which was fine with us also. We had a quiet, uneventful, boring trip arriving in Lake Timsah at 8pm. Being so late we ere not able to have a look at Ismailia. Next day the Pilot arrived just before 9am and made some noise about it being Ramadan and Illawong was too small and therefore too slow and he wouldn't get to eat at the "right" time. Eventually persuaded he came aboard and we were off for the second leg, equally uneventful and boring. On nearing Suez we got into another "discussion" about us anchoring out in the bay or being taken directly to the Suez Yacht Club - it didn't really make much sense to us, we are sure it was just rigamarole and doing us a "favour" - but finally just on dusk he hurried us to tie up between to buoys at the Club and in a flash he was downstairs sitting at the table waiting to be fed. It made no difference to him that, out of polite-ness, we had not had anything to eat or drink all day either. However, that is their custom so, as visitors, we must abide by that and really it is part of the fun of travelling and learning. So, even tho it was a bit dull and the Pilots a bit of a pain, we still feel as if we accomplished something by making the trip - conquering the Canal as it were - and not being too browbeaten. Altho we felt it was a real stepping-stone we had been rather apprehensive about it. Coming down the Canal we could do 6kn pushing the motor to 2600 rpm. Illawong has not been able to motor at that speed for a long time. I guess the swim at Ashkelon to clean the bottom made all the difference as well as the anticipation of the Red Sea. The trip took 2 days of motoring, just over 50nm each day with head winds the first day but beam winds the second and a north bound current both days. No sailing is allowed in the Canal and yacht's are not allowed to move after dark. This of course is a problem in winter with short days and most yachts have to pay some baksheesh to get through in 2 days. There are Signal Stations all along the canal with big billboards showing time, wind condition and some other numbers that we never did quite figure out. The freighters go in convoy, two going south starting from Port Said at 1am and 6am and one going North from Suez at 6am taking on an average about 15 hours for these ships to transit. A lot of monitoring and instructions issued on VHF, in particular at the freighter passing section in Great Bitter Lake. The southbound convoy must wait for the northbound one to pass before proceeding further, no vessel is allowed to pass another within the Canal itself. We were also meant to stop with the convoy but a little bit of baksheesh organised by our Pilot, goes a long way.
Well we are now in Suez Port, glad to have the Med and the Canal over and done with. We can now sit back, relax and enjoy our time in Egypt, the Red Sea, Sudan and Eritrea for the next 5 months. We expect to exit the Red Sea in June and plan to arrive in India by year end, via Yemen, Oman and Persian Gulf. For the record we did 2,273Nm in 1995 (less than last year - still slowing down) with a trip total of 12,293Nm so far.

We wish one and all a happy and efficacious 1996 (what's left of it).